This page is dedicated to sharing best practices, evidence-based strategies, tools and resources for people seeking employment or already working as direct support professionals and frontline supervisors who support individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It also offers guidance for employers looking to recruit, select, train and retain this essential workforce.
Welcome to Beyond the Desk, a newsletter dedicated to strengthening and supporting Rhode Island’s direct support workforce. Each issue features practical tools and strategies for recruiting, selecting, training, developing and retaining direct support professionals and frontline supervisors, along with a Rhode Island employer’s experience putting a featured tool into practice. You’ll also find upcoming webinars, Communities of Practice and updates from the Rhode Island Statewide Workforce Initiative (RISWI) workgroups. If you’d like to subscribe, there is a link in the newsletter.
This page is dedicated to bringing forward best practices, evidence-based strategies, tools and resources for those seeking employment as DSPs and for those employed as DSPs who wish to improve the services and supports they provide to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
This page is dedicated to providing information and resources to those employed as frontline supervisors in the intellectual and developmental disabilities services field. You will find information to assist you in your role as a frontline supervisor, including information regarding the supervision of direct support professionals.
This page is dedicated to helping all employers, including agency providers and those who use self-directed services, recruit, select, train and retain the workforce that supports individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
This page was created to showcase the work of the Rhode Island Statewide Workforce Initiative (RISWI), a collaborative partnership between Paul V. Sherlock Center on Disabilities / Rhode Island College, Community Provider Network of Rhode Island (CPNRI), Department of Labor and Training (DLT), Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities & Hospitals (BHDDH), Direct Support Workforce Solutions at the Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota, as well as employers, those with lived experience, their families and direct support professionals (DSPs) who have the common goal of strengthening the workforce that provides support to help people live the lives they choose.
Share your thoughts about the Direct Support Workforce page.
Kim Einloth
Content Specialist
