| Careers
in Community Services |
If you’re thinking
about a career in special education but don’t necessarily want to
work in the classroom, there are plenty of other opportunities for
you. In this section we will talk about jobs in community services.
If you decide that community services are not for you after reading
this unit, don’t distress! There are other career options as well
in the field of special education that we will discuss next. But for
now, let’s take a closer look at what community services are and what
a job in this field would be like.
What are Community Services? There are numerous opportunities
to work with people with disabilities in a variety of community agencies.
People in community services may work for public agencies, often called
comprehensive care or community mental health centers, or for a variety
of private organizations. Some community organizations trace their
roots back to parent efforts to provide services for their children
with disabilities. In other cases, state government established some
community agencies. Some agencies attempt to be comprehensive, providing
a full spectrum of services to people with a variety of disabilities.
Others are highly specialized, providing a narrowly defined group
of services. Just like any other sector of the economy, these organizations
can range from small "mom and pop" operations to large national
corporations. In this discussion, we are not going to try to explore
all the possible options; instead we will try to give an overview
of the basic job categories that may be available to someone who wants
to work in this field.
In the field of community services as a whole, there
is a rather extensive career path. An individual can move from being
a direct care worker in a community group home to becoming an executive
of a large organization. However, some individual organizations, because
of small size or limited scope of service, may have relatively few
opportunities for advancement.
It is important to note that many of these job categories
are relatively new. After all, community services for people with
disabilities were almost non-existent 30 years ago. Through the 1970s,
institutions were often the sole source of services for people with
disabilities. Public outrage over the abysmal conditions that existed
in most institutions, along with parental advocacy, have led to massive
growth in community services. Today the number of people in institutions
has decreased dramatically and in some states, there are no longer
any large publicly funded institutions. This movement away from institutions
has not always been orderly and as a result, a career path for workers
in the system has taken some time to emerge.
What are the actual jobs? Some of the jobs available
in community service would fall under the following eight general
categories:
- 1. Case manager or
service coordinator. People in this role usually work for community
mental health organizations or sometimes for private agencies. They
work with the person who has a disability and their family to assure
that they have access to all needed services.
2. Sheltered workshop staff. Staff in sheltered workshops supervise
individuals with disabilities who are employed there. They are responsible
for job skill development and sometimes involved in teaching daily
living and other skills.
3. Group home staff. Group homes can range in size of anywhere from
3 to 15 people. The staff may actually live in the home or work
on shift basis. They are responsible for supervising the residents
and sometimes for home maintenance and meal preparation. Often,
they are actively engaged in teaching the residents skills they
need to live more independently.
4. Residential staff. In addition to group homes, there are a wide
variety of residential arrangements for people with disabilities.
These are distinguished from group homes by not having a relatively
large group of people all living under the same roof. In such programs,
the staff usually lives in their own apartment and are available
on-call and to drop in to see how things are going for the residents.
5. Supported living staff. Supported living is different from other
models of residential services in that it emphasizes ownership of
the home by the person with a disability. The work of supported
living staff is highly individualized and negotiated based on the
needs and preferences of the person with a disability.
6. Personal assistant. People in this role perform those tasks that
the individual who has a disability would normally do for himself
or herself if the person had no disability. Again, this is a highly
personalized arrangement that is individually worked out with the
person with a disability.
7. Job developer. This role is part of the new system of vocational
services that offers an alternative to sheltered programs. People
in this role work with businesses in their communities to identify
employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The emphasis
is often on tailoring a particular job to the unique characteristics
of a specific individual.
8. Job coach/employment specialist. This job is also part of the
community-based model of vocational services. Job coaches work together
with people who have a disability and employers to develop work
skills and support success in typical work settings.
Increasingly, there is an emphasis on service coordinators,
supported living staff, personal assistants, job developers, and job
coaches as the career directions for the future. These roles are more
consistent with individually planned services and supports. This is
based on the fact that these roles place a greater emphasis on supporting
people with disabilities so they achieve independence, productivity,
community inclusion, and self-determination. Many people in the field
have begun to acknowledge the skills and responsibilities of community
service workers. This is reflected in new terminology that is used
to describe many of them as direct support professionals.
What kind of
education is required? Traditionally “direct line workers” who interact
directly with people with disabilities were often seen as "paraprofessionals"
requiring only a high school diploma. Typically, managers in such
organizations are required to have at least a bachelor's degree and
often a master’s degree in some relevant field such as education,
social work, or psychology. As expectations for people in the direct
care role have increased, organizations are frequently looking at
higher entry-level credentials such as an associate's degree or a
bachelor's degree. However you should be aware that you will still
find a great deal of variation around the country and even from agency
to agency in the same community. Only in the last few years have national
organizations developed lists of required skills for workers in various
community service roles.
As the field of community services has become firmly established,
community colleges around the country and some four-year institutions
have begun to develop specialized programs for community service workers.
Some examples of these programs are listed below.
* The Kentucky Community and Technical College System offers an Associate
Degree in Human services. This program prepares individuals for entry-level
positions in agencies and institutions that provide social, community,
educational and mental health services. You can find a description
of the program through http://www.kctcs.edu/student/catalog/
* Minnesota has developed the Community Supports Program as a comprehensive
educational program for professionals who support people with developmental
disabilities. The CSP offers an 11–credit certificate program and
a 48–credit diploma program at several sites around the state. You
can find out more about it at http://rtc.umn.edu/success/csp/index.html
* McDaniel College in Maryland offers a Master of Science Degree in
Human Service Management to prepare middle- to upper-level managers
for community-based programs for people with developmental disabilities.
It integrates work experience in a community service agency with graduate
course work. This innovative program is described at . http://www.wmdc.edu/graduate/degrees/target/target_home.html
* At the University of Kentucky, the Interdisciplinary Human Development
Institute offers a Graduate Certificate in Developmental Disabilities.
The purpose of this Graduate Certificate is to prepare professionals
from a broad range of disciplines to play a leadership role in providing
services and supports for people with developmental disabilities and
their families. You can find out more about this program at http://www.ihdi.uky.edu/ddcertificate.
What do these workers actually do? Direct support professionals (DSP)
provide guidance and support to people who need help to be self-sufficient.
DSPs view their job as a profession that demands complex skills and
knowledge, ethical judgment and the ability to create relationships
of trust and mutual respect. Please review the following web pages
sheet that summarizes the facts about this emerging profession: http://thearc.org/faqs/dsw.html.
Direct support professionals are known by a variety of job titles:
residential counselor, personal care attendant, job coach, para-educator,
program manager, direct care provider, and many others. They have
established their own national organization, the National Alliance
of Direct Support Professionals. The organization’s website (http://rtc.umn.edu/dsp)
contains practical information for individuals who provide residential,
educational, and vocational services to persons with disabilities.
Within this Web site is state-of-the-art information for direct support
professionals, trainers and supervisors of direct support professionals,
policymakers, and researchers seeking to ensure that quality direct
care services are available to all persons with disabilities. Click
on the publications page at the site (http://rtc.umn.edu/dsp/pubs/index.html)
and please review the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals
Code of Ethics and DSP Job Analysis. You will also find a variety
of other interesting publications, including links to the organization’s
newsletter.
*ACTIVITY*
Based
on what you learned from the direct support fact sheet, the
code of ethics, and the job analysis, please
write a brief newspaper article announcing the formation
of a local chapter of the National Alliance. Your article
should be one typed page in length, single spaced with 12
point type.
|
Options in Community
Living in Madison, Wisconsin is an example of an agency where the
staff sees themselves as direct support professionals. They believe
that every person has the right to live in a home in the community
as an active and accepted member of the community. Options' mission
is to provide support and coordinate services to enable adults with
developmental disabilities to live in their own homes. Options employees
provide a wide range of assistance to individuals being supported
by Options. Responsibilities may include personal care, home chores
assistance, companionship, and assistance in participating in community
life. These positions vary from part time to full time, and include
benefits at 30 hours per week of employment.
*ACTIVITY*
To
gain a better sense of the what jobs in this field are like,
visit the Options
website. Review at least the sections
entitled “Who we are,” “What we do,” “Community,”
“News: Options community news,” and “Jobs here.” |
Not all direct support
professional work in the area of residential support or with people
with developmental disabilities. Kristen is a job coach at an agency
for people with serious mental illness.
*ACTIVITY*
Read
her brief
summary of her job. While there, follow the links to see
the specific skills this organizations expects
the “job coach” and a “job developer” to have. |
*ACTIVITY*
Based
on everything you have learned in this section on community
services, write a brief newspaper article announcing the formation
of a local chapter of the National Alliance of Direct Support
Professionals. Your article should be one typed page in length,
single-spaced, one-inch margins, and using 12-point type. Make
sure you article clearly reflects information from all of the
sources you reviewed.
|
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to Careers Introduction