Direct Support Professionals

Birch Family Services is a leading provider of education, employment, and community support services for individuals with autism and developmental disabilities and their families in New York City. Every year, the organization supports more than 2,000 people across 31 locations in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. From preschool to graduation, employment, housing, and beyond, Birch Family Services provides fully integrated programs and services to support individuals in achieving their goals across their lifetime.

Help us open new community residences supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Cambria Heights, Queens! Bring your compassion, empathy, and desire to help people lead fulfilling lives to an opportunity right in your neighborhood.

As a Direct Support Professional you will counsel, assist and train individuals with developmental disabilities in the areas of personal care, travel skills, social skills, home management and life skills in order to maximize their functioning in the community.

Birch’s soon-to-open Cambria Heights residence offers:

• 3 and 4 day full time work weeks!
• Supportive supervision and training!
• Comprehensive health and welfare benefits for qualifying positions!
• HOURLY RATES FROM $22 TO $24/HOUR!!!!*
• Hourly rates depend on education and experience. Newly hired staff may start at another Birch residence until the new facilities open. Hourly rates will be between $18.54 - $22.37/hour until transferred to Cambria Heights or Glen Oaks residence.
  
  

Responsibilities:

Support the individual by supporting a comfortable home environment. Examples include but are not limited to:

• Provide safe and clean environment for the individual based on skill level and risks and support the safety of all individuals in everyday situations.
• Use verbal and physical means to create a positive environment that will encourage and enable individual growth.
• Using a holistic approach, participate in the individual’s life planning activities and assist in their implementation.
• Assist the individual in the development of social skills that will help the individual become integrated/ included in his or her community.
• Perform protective oversight while engaging in community activities.
• Monitor each individual’s personal health on a continuous basis (during situations of high activity, while bathing/showering/swimming, in the morning and the evening, at meals, while in the community, at all times).
• Assist individuals in learning and practicing skills necessary for home living (indoor household chores such as, but not limited to, cooking, sweeping, dusting, bed-making, vacuuming, and dish-washing, laundry, folding and storing clothes, etc.).
• Provide opportunities for the individual to be self-advocate.
• Perform advocate responsibilities, while demonstrating respect for the processes and people involved.
• Responsible for all documentation related to the essential function and services for the individual.
• Adhere to the procedures for mandated reporting and responding.
• Adhere to the NADSP code of ethics.
• Work towards the satisfactory completion of each of the core competency goals according to the OPWDD timeline requirements.
  
  

Qualifications

Qualifications:

• High School diploma or General Education Degree (GED).
• 1-year experience working with developmentally disabled population preferably in a residential, health or treatment related setting preferred.
• Specialized training in direct care provision preferred.
• Must complete and obtain certification in OPWDD Approved Medication Administration Course (AMAP) during probationary period and maintain AMAP certification.
• Valid NYS Driver’s License required for most shifts.
• Ability and willingness to be First Aid and CPR certified.
• Ability and willingness to obtain certification in SCIPR Competencies and advance to Promote Competencies
• Demonstrated competency in written, verbal, and computational skills to document records in accordance with program standards.
  
  

Physical Demands:

• Regularly required to speak clearly and hear the spoken word well.
• Regularly required to utilize near vision ability to read data and documents, including spreadsheets and reports, in printed form and on computer screens.
• Regularly required to provide physical care for clients and individuals, which may include, but is not limited to bathing, feeding, changing clothes or diapers, and pushing wheelchairs.
• Ability to physically restrain challenging behaviors that include aggression, self-injurious, and destructive behaviors.
• Ability to apply proper lifting techniques.