Frontline Supervisor Symposium – Region 4

  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Frontline Supervisor Symposium – Region 4

Region 4 of the Regional Centers for Workforce Transformation (RCWT) is hosting a Frontline Supervisor Symposium on Thursday, 5/25/17. The symposium will take place in New York City from 10am-12pm. You can register here.

Why are the RCWT having a Frontline Supervisor Symposium?

At a Region 4 meeting in March, several workforce champions agreed that more needed to be done to support frontline supervisors (FLSs). FLSs are responsible for evaluating and observing direct support professionals (DSPs). It is also up to FLSs to create a culture of communication and professional growth. In addition, a FLS should serve as a model for a DSP. FLSs need more guidance and support with this.

At the Region 4 meeting, many workforce champions gave suggestions on how to help FLSs. Here are a few of the suggestions:

– Use a mentorship model
– Do more to acknowledge FLS
– Provide short, mini trainings that can be viewed on the go (e.g. phone)
– Engage in team-building exercises
– Train FLS on their own set of competencies

What to expect at the Frontline Supervisor Symposium

At the symposium, we will discuss more ideas and come up with a plan of action to support FLSs. FLSs play a major role in workforce transformation because they communicate directly with DSPs. Therefore, we need to take the FLS perspective into account. We also need to pay attention to the FLS and DSP relationship. At the symposium we will talk about why workforce transformation is important and why you should care about it. We will also share time management strategies for FLSs, discuss the core competencies being developed for FLS, and talk about the role of DSPs and FLSs.

At the symposium, Dianne Henk, the Director of Workforce Transformation at OPWDD will be presenting. Sonja Williams-Richardson, who is lead for Region 4, will facilitate.

If you find that the issues mentioned here are relevant to your Region, please contact your Regional Lead and we can plan a symposium in your Region.