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Message from ANCOR:
As you may have heard, the Recognizing the Role of Direct Support Professionals Act was reintroduced in Congress! This Act would direct the Office of Management and Budget to establish a Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) for direct support professionals (DSP). With a SOC for DSPs, we can begin to capture more accurate employment and wage data, which helps in developing more precise payment rates. We need your support to ensure that this crucial bipartisan legislation is supported by your congressional members and passed this Congress!
ANCOR members and our allies have already been doing an amazing job in just the past two days — Over 3,500 messages have been sent to Members of Congress! In case you have a competitive streak and are curious which states are leading the pack, members from New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Massachusetts have sent the most messages to Congress this week! Let’s keep the momentum going!
Take action and contact your legislators today to support DSPs and share it with your friends and family. Remember, you can take the action alert every day! Let’s make a difference for our Direct Support Professional Workforce.
DSPs are a vital part of agencies everywhere.
MITC is awarding $5,000 in September to Direct Support Professionals (DSP) who stand out and go above and beyond to provide exemplary service. MITC values the hard work put forth by DSPs every day and is hoping to show our appreciation through these prizes!
Your participation is important — it shows DSPs that you appreciate their hard and, at times, dangerous work. Three prizes will be awarded:
We will share the awardees’ stories with providers. The winners will be announced during DSP Recognition Week in September 2023.
The deadline to nominate a DSP is August 1, 2023.
RCPA (Rehabilitation & Community Providers Association), PAR (Pennsylvania Advocates and Resources for Autism and Intellectual Disabilities), The Arc of Pennsylvania, TPA (The Provider Alliance), The Alliance of Community Service Providers, and MAX Association sent a letter to the general assembly requesting their support of our joint budget request.
As the organizations representing Pennsylvania’s Intellectual Disabilities/Autism (ID/A) service providers, we are asking them to include $430 million in the 2023/24 state general fund budget proposal to significantly improve the wage rates for the Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) who provide care to individuals with ID/A. This funding and its federal match are crucial because the ID/A system is in crisis. Nearly 60,000 Pennsylvanians with ID/A are at risk of losing or experiencing a reduction of essential services because there are not enough DSPs to care for them.
See the letter for full information.