DSP week Archives - Penn-Mar

My Family’s Personal Gratitude During DSP Recognition Week

ggorham — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 16:23:17 +0000

By Michele Jacobs, Penn-Mar Parent

Before moving from Baltimore City to Parkton, MD in 2012, our family prioritized finding a human services provider that could continue offering one-to-one support for our eldest son, Scott, now 35.

Scott is non-verbal and sometimes experiences behavioral challenges related to communication difficulties. But he also makes himself known — he has a contagious laugh and smile that never fails to captivate those around him.

Scott loves all kinds of music and carries around a hand-held radio so he can quickly switch between stations. If he is at a venue with live music, you can always find him dancing right in front of the stage.

Scott can comprehend what is being said and uses hand gestures to better communicate. Most recently, he has been relying on an Assistive Technology (AT) device with photos of people, places, and things that he can reference when signaling his wants, needs, and topics of discussion.

My husband Allen and I were looking for a provider who could give our son the meaningful and engaging life he both desired and deserved. We were extremely fortunate to find Penn-Mar Human Services, which is conveniently located only a few miles from our home. Penn-Mar’s Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) have changed not just Scott’s life, but ours too.

Scott lives at home but attends Penn-Mar’s Day Program every weekday. The program provides him with the individual attention he needs, gives him opportunities to explore the community every day, keeps him safe, and empowers him to develop friendships. Because Scott can be overwhelmed by large groups, the DSPs who support him make accommodations to surround him with smaller groups of people to ensure his comfort.

He likes to be “on the go,” but after considering several employment opportunities, he and his Penn-Mar team decided he would be best suited running his own business where he could travel from task to task. Consequently, “Scott’s Sweets and Treats” was established. Scott has two candy boxes at local pizza shops. With the assistance of his DSP, he purchases candy from Sam’s Club, delivers the candy and then fills the boxes, selling the candy for fifty cents or three for one dollar. He collects the profits and then uses some to buy himself drinks and snacks.

I often become emotional when speaking about these amazing DSPs who have made such a difference in my son’s and our family’s life. For 13 years, they’ve stood by Scott and by us, finding ways every single day to help him live his best life.

Supporting Scott takes patience and creativity, and his DSPs have shown both of these qualities in abundance. Each has brought their own history and perspective to his person-centered life plan, giving him experiences and insights we could never provide on our own. Year after year, they have stood with him and with us, ensuring he is cared for in every way, and our gratitude is immense.

September 7-13 is DSP Recognition Week. I hope you will join our family — and all the families who have loved ones with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) — to say “thank you” to this essential and dedicated workforce for all they do to make this world a better place.

The post My Family’s Personal Gratitude During DSP Recognition Week appeared first on Penn-Mar.

DSP Week Formally Recognizes Our Direct Support Workforce

ggorham — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 14:17:57 +0000

DSPs are team members we value and appreciate year-round.

Gregory Miller
President/CEO Penn-Mar Human Services

From September 7–13, the nation will be observing Direct Support Professional Recognition Week.

When launching this special designation, the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR) emphasized that “Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) are at the heart of in-home and community-based disability services. They deliver essential long-term supports that empower people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to live independently, work in the community, spend their days meaningfully, connect with family and friends, and more.”

ANCOR advocates for inclusion and provides resources and support to enhance the lives of people with disabilities and their families. Its 2,500 members employ nearly 750,000 DSPs, who together support more than one in five people with IDD in the US.

The value of our DSPs is something that can never be assumed or overlooked. The quality of our services and ability to deliver on our promise to support people with IDD to live courageously in pursuit of their best life is dependent on these team members who provide direct support on a day-to-day basis.

Yet despite the array of valuable supports DSPs deliver in every corner of this country, this is a workforce in crisis.

Turnover and vacancy rates within the DSP ranks have skyrocketed in recent years, with turnover rates hovering just below 40% nationally and as many as one in eight DSP positions remaining vacant.

Despite the national shortage, Penn-Mar’s DSP retention rate is above average due to significant investments in career training which has improved our retention and advancement opportunities.

Programs like our Belonging initiative are designed to engage our workforce by having them collaborate with leadership to continually impact their work experience in positive ways.

Thirty percent of our DSP workforce has participated in our Career Ladders Program to learn how to weave Penn-Mar’s core values and standards of excellence through the credentialling process to find practical, positive ways to make them come to life for the people they support.

Our DSP workforce is highly motivated to pursue other educational opportunities as well. Some are in the process of pursuing college degrees in human services, while others are active participants in industry-related continuing education workshops, conferences, and seminars.

Other training opportunities like our Frontline Supervisor Certification Program Training are also available to DSPs and don’t require them to leave their person-centered supports behind. Their DSP experience only serves to strengthen their leadership roles as they transition to becoming mentors and managers.

We all have people in our lives that play invaluable roles. Occasionally, I find myself taking a step back to consider when the last time was that I told them how much I care about them and value our relationship.

During DSP Week, we formally take the time to thank our DSPs and acknowledge the daily, often unsung moments of connection and care that define the true spirit of this essential workforce.

As an organization, we are committed to cultivating an environment where appreciation is not reserved for a single week but rather embedded in our culture year-round. We strive to ensure our DSPs feel seen, valued, and empowered to grow — both professionally and personally — because their contributions form the foundation of our mission.

On behalf of the entire Penn-Mar organization, the people we support and their families, I am delighted to extend 24/7 heartfelt thanks to all our dynamic and committed DSPs, especially during their special week!

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Highlighting Four of Our DSPs During DSP Recognition Week

nvenn — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 20:44:38 +0000

By Gregory T. Miller, President and Chief Executive Officer, Penn-Mar Human Services | Chief Executive Officer, Penn-Mar Foundation

Starting on September 8th, we will be observing Direct Support Professional (DSP) Recognition Week, a nationwide celebration to acknowledge and highlight the dedicated direct support workforce that is the heart and soul of supports for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD).

Nationwide, the DSP retention rate is still at an anemic 50%. But at Penn-Mar ours is an impressive 86%.

One of the best decisions we made was to appoint Kelly Baker our Career Ladders Program Coordinator, which has certainly impacted this statistic. She is our Chief Cheerleader when it comes to ensuring success for everyone enrolled in the program. We always knew WHY the program was valuable; Kelly’s great leadership helped to create HOW to make it work.

And Career Ladders is only one of several ways we are supporting our team members. Training, commitment and an alignment of our resources have also contributed to our retention of 94% of our DSPs who have been credentialed in Career Ladders and 82% of our DSPs who have not.

So, it would seem the perfect time for me to highlight four of our DSPs who by being the best they can be are the very definition of what a great DSP should be.

Kas Jasinski, who manages a residential home in Whitehall, has been a tremendous leader in our organization for nearly 18 years. She is the role model that our DSPs aspire to be. Kas believes that God has put her on this earth to help other people. She currently supports two aging gentlemen with dementia and is an incredible advocate for them and the services of Penn-Mar. When you spend time with Kas you can’t help but notice how settled and peaceful she makes you feel. She shows amazing compassion with the people she supports and is truly one of our star performers. Kas has earned her DSP-I Certification through our Career Ladders Program, adding yet another dimension to her learning and understanding of her critical role.

Patrick Sgro is our Residential Supervisor at a home in Hampstead. He has been with Penn-Mar for almost 17 years and supports two incredible gentlemen. Near and dear to my heart, these gentlemen lived in a residential home with my wife Terri and I many years ago when they were kids, as we started our careers as DSPs. Patrick has developed a tremendous rapport with these men and serves as a stabilizing force of calm in the many challenges that emerge each day. He definitely has a go with-the-flow mentality towards his job but when things need to get done he makes sure they get done, cohesively managing the people and teams he works with. I was Patrick’s mentor when he started in our original Career Ladders training program in 2016. I always say that once I got out of his way, Patrick found his groove and managed to work his way up to a DSP-III certification!

Sue Thorpe has been a DSP at Penn-Mar for an incredible 29 years! She was one of the first people I hired to work in our residential home program in 1989 and I’m sure she remembers the days when our entire staff could fit into one room for a meeting! Sue left us in 2005 when she married and started a family, but we happily welcomed her back in 2011. Sue is a remarkable person who has grown as a professional in her three decades here. Her history with Penn-Mar is rich and deep and her heart of gold is filled with great compassion for the ladies she supports in a PA residential home. They are truly part of her “family” and Sue always gives them encouragement and direction in a way that is both respectful and caring. A tireless advocate for our Career Ladders Program, Sue was part of our Class 2 in 2017 and achieved a DSP-III certification.

Kellie Spies, with Penn-Mar for nearly 23 years, is one of those individuals that you always know has everything under control. She is a remarkably stable team member who is currently supporting four gentlemen at their home in Seven Valleys. During her time with us, Kellie has seen and experienced it all – the loss of people she has supported, the transition of new people into homes, the ever-evolving delivery of services – and she has approached each challenge with grace and compassion. When team members look for guidance on how to manage a residential home, they talk to Kellie. She is not extroverted or flamboyant and is more comfortable operating under the radar. And while not a participant in the Career Ladders Program, Kellie’s job performance is consistently outstanding and speaks to her many years of acquiring valuable lessons on the job.

These remarkable DSPs represent a combined total of 87 years of service at Penn-Mar! Please join me in congratulating them – and all of our DSPs – during their much-deserved Recognition Week!

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