We're Making a Positive Difference in People's Lives

The Ohio Alliance of Direct Support Professionals (OADSP) is a coalition of individuals and organizations committed to recruiting, training and retaining people to support people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities. Its roots are deeply embedded in the fields of mental health, developmental disabilities, child welfare, education and many others in the human services community.

With a sharp focus on strengthening the direct support workforce, OADSP has a statewide agenda to address conditions that have long been harmful to people who rely on human services: high rates of staff turnover, low social status, insufficient training, limited educational and career opportunities and poor wages. 

OADSP's commitment is to make a positive difference in people's lives by providing better support for Ohioans with intellectual and other development disabilities, and by creating promising career DSPATHS for those who support them in their own communities.

We all remember the days when the warehousing of people with disabilities was painfully routine. Fortunately, those days are gone, replaced by a new understanding that all people should be able to live life to its fullest in community-based settings.

But this understanding has limited value if Ohioans with intellectual disabilities do not have well-trained, experienced and motivated Direct Support Professionals at their side in long-term, stable support relationships. And these relationships depend upon well-planned workforce development strategies that enhance the services of the state's Direct Support Professionals.

This is why the OADSP launched its DSPATHS program in 2000 with support from the Ohio Provider Resource Organization, Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council, People First, Ohio Association of County Boards of MR/DD, Ohio Department of MR/DD and other stakeholder groups. 

To learn more about the DSPATHS Credentialing Program, click on “About DSPATHS” at the left or on the DSPATHS logo at the right.