On Saturday, July 17, the Direct Care Alliance held a Voices Institute Leadership Training Workshop in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, which I led with Brenda Nachtway. Eight direct care workers attended the workshop that included leadership self-assessment and modules on personal power, membership recruitment and building relationships with allies. The attendees were especially inspired to hear that the Direct Care Empowerment Act was about to be introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives and they practiced visiting with allies to gain support for the bill. On completion of the workshop, five participants – Clara Glenn, Margaret Beringer, Rolanda Crawley, Soon Hong and Noel Mendes – formed a Leadership Circle and are working together to build a chapter of the Pennsylvania Direct Care Workers Association in the Philadelphia region. Continue reading »
Former National Advocacy Director Roy Gedat will re-join the DCA staff as State Advocacy Director to lead the development of its membership program, focusing on recruiting and developing direct care worker leaders and connecting with supporters and advocates across the country. Roy will also support the implementation of the Langeloth Foundation grant to provide worker leadership training in New York and Maine. His work was instrumental to the DCA’s early success, and we’re thrilled to have him back! Roy has over 35 years in human services including 20 as the Executive Director of a child health agency. He was the founding director of Maine’s direct care worker organization Maine PASA, a direct care worker and a political activist who has run for office, and is currently the Treasurer of Oxford County, Maine. Roy has recently been focusing his energies on starting a private duty home care agency, raising money for several local and state-wide organizations and political campaign
Helen Hanson
Helen Hanson, a great friend of the DCA and a strong advocate for direct care workers in Maine, is joining our staff as a Worker Advocate to assist in grassroots organizing and strengthen our advocacy efforts in Maine and across the country. Helen is a graduate of the DCA’s Voices Institute and has excelled so much since! She is a Certified Nursing Assistant and works with elders in their homes as a Personal Care Attendant. She’s been a direct care worker for eight years and has been an active advocate for change, leading Maine PASA and serving on a committee established to advise the Department of Health and Human Services on how to improve its long-term care system. She is currently running for the Maine House of Representatives.
Helen and Roy are huge assets to DCA and will be key to our continued growth. Please join me in welcoming them aboard!
I am one of the original 24 direct care workers selected from around the country to participate in the inaugural class of Voices Institute in 2008 . I am very proud to be a graduate of the very 1st Voices Institute.
One of the many things that has stuck with me is when we talked about the most courageous acts of our lives. For me, it was joining Iowa Caregivers Association because it brought my passion back to direct care. I was getting burned out and was ready to leave the direct care field at the time, but the Iowa Caregivers Association has taught me to have voice to talk to other CNA’s about what is going on in the health care field. Continue reading »
This is a guest post from Voices Institute graduate Angel Saylor.
Angel Saylor (right)
Over 200 Certified Nursing Assistants and their allies came together in Charlottesville, Virginia, on February 16 to share ideas on improving the workplace. The conference was hosted by the Community Partnership for Improved Long-term Care, an initiative of the Legal Aid Justice Center. It brought together direct care workers, elders, advocates, employers, doctors, nurses and others to:
• Exchange information and best practices;
• Recognize the challenges and celebrate the accomplishments of long-term care workers and caregivers from all settings;
• Learn how to enhance professionalism, leadership and teamwork, and offer solutions to reduce turnover; and
• Participate in skills training for caregivers to better meet the needs of disabled persons and seniors living with the challenges of aging. Continue reading »
You must first be a believer if you would be an achiever.
Late last year, something happened that humbled me more than anything else in the five years that I’ve worked at the Catholic Community Services (CCS) Community Living Program in Tucson: I was chosen as our 2009-2010 Employee of the Year.
I have been assisting people with disabilities since I was in high school. I do this work because I love it, to accomplish goals, and to feel that I am contributing to something. I usually don’t feel as if anyone other than the person I am assisting is aware of what I do. If you’d asked me about that, I would have said it didn’t matter, but this award has made me realize how good it feels to have your work acknowledged.
It has also made me think about the road that led me to this profession that I love. Continue reading »
This spring, the DCA’s Voices Institute will introduce a state-level training program for people who want to improve the lives of direct support workers and the people they support. If you’re a direct support worker or a long-term care recipient in Wisconsin who has a passion for that cause, we’d love to see you there!
In this video, shot by and starring graduates of the 2009 Voices Institute National Leadership Program, direct care worker advocates speak out about why they love their work and what needs to change.
A is for the admiration I received
W is for the wonderful people
E is for everything I appreciate about the people of the DCA
S is for that special someone who gave confidence that I could do it
O is for the one thing that made a big difference in my life
M is for the many new friendships I made
E is for the experience that will make me a whole lot better person
DCA board chair Vera Salter teaching members of the 2009 class
“Let the root thrive” was the birthing motto of the Voices Institute inaugural class, inspired by the lakeside location of the DeKoven Center in Wisconsin, where the first graduates launched DCA’s signature National Leadership Program (NLP) to turbo-charge direct care worker leadership and activism.
When I wrote, after the first class graduated, that the inaugural program was one “historic and successful step forward for the movement to empower direct care workers and to fix our broken long-term care system,” I was dreaming of the possibilities. From September 27 through October 3 of this year, direct care workers once again proved their capacity to make the seemingly impossible happen, and to claim the respect they deserve as professionals. The roots are thriving at the state and national level, and the new class of graduates have a place from where to build national policy success. Continue reading »
Connie Kreider with fellow graduate Tony Wells at the 2009 VI NLP
B– breathing and inhaling the amazing week
E– entering and walking down a new path of leadership
L–learning and leaving footprints for others to follow
I–internal peace and tranquility
E–experiencing renewed strength and feeling blessed by walking on hallowed ground
F–friends for a lifetime, feelings of one unbreakable strength and renewed passion
