Celebrate DSP Week With KenCrest

DSP-week

KenCrest is celebrating its Direct Support Professionals with various events across Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut for DSP Week.

By Sydney Kerelo

KenCrest is celebrating Direct Support Professional Week this September with week-long events across Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. But what exactly is a Direct Support Professional (DSP)?

Direct Support Professionals help the people we support with intellectual and developmental disabilities successfully live within their homes and communities. DSPs deliver essential long-term support, including medical and behavioral health needs, assisting with daily living activities, and providing proper teachings and social interactions.

The job duties of a DSP include those of a teacher, nurse, social worker, counselor, physical or occupational therapist, dietician, chauffeur, personal trainer, and more. They are essential in creating a healthy, safe, and happy lifestyle for the people we support, and KenCrest’s DSPs are critical to our organization.

All DSPs at KenCrest embody that desire to help as many men and women with disabilities as possible. One Lead DSP in particular, David Ribeiro from our Connecticut branch, boasts about the need to help the people we support.

RELATED: This Program Manager Celebrates 21 Years at KenCrest

“I have always been somewhat part of the human services industry, whether it be volunteer work or back in high school, I was in a program where you buddy up with another person, and throughout the school year, you help them,” says Ribeiro. “I never really thought to get into the field until two years ago, when it just fell in my lap, and I pretty much fell in love with it from there.”

dsp-week

Ribeiro started working at KenCrest’s Connecticut branch nine years ago as a DSP in a small house in Cheshire. Ribeiro has become an asset to his home for the past few years, and his relationships with the residents are astounding. Two of the people he supports, Adam and Amy, have developed a close relationship with Ribeiro.

 

“One thing Amy loves to do is to read; she’s always looking for someone to read to her. Amy’s awesome; I have a great relationship with her; Amy calls me Papa,” laughs Ribeiro. “She is the one who gave me that nickname. To this day, I’m not known as Dave or anything else; just big Papa.”

Ribeiro is just one of the incredible DSPs KenCrest employs; numerous others deserve recognition and a celebration this DSP Week.

Want to learn more about becoming a Direct Support Professional? Click here to view our open DSP positions.