As 2023 comes to an end, we reflect on everything that has happened this year, as well as everything we hope to accomplish in 2024.  

This past year, we saw another historic state budget, which provided millions of dollars of additional funding for wages for Direct Support Professionals (DSPs).  DSPs are the people providing the direct services to people with developmental disabilities, in their homes, at their jobs, and in the community.  We are grateful for the support from the state to recognize the important role DSPs play in the lives of the people we are supporting.

We held several agency events this year, like our Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month Open House, Egg Hunt, Things That Go!, Family Fun Day, and Trunk or Treat.  We also completed our accreditation review with the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, resulting in the maximum three-year accreditation.  We revamped our website, and we had three employees give a presentation at the annual convention of the Ohio Association of County Boards of Developmental Disabilities regarding the new website.  We also increased our enrollment in all service areas, as the number of people we are serving in Warren County is increasing each month.   

In 2024, we look forward to the approval and implementation of our new three-year strategic plan.  Our current strategic plan ends on December 31, 2023.  Once the new plan is finalized and approved, it will be posted to our website, with annual updates regarding the achievement of goals.

We will continue to hold all of our agency events, as mentioned above.  We expect the number of people served by us will continue to grow, so we are prepared to serve even more than the over 2,400 people we currently serve, next year.  The Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities has developed a workgroup to focus on Waiver Modernization, in an effort to simplify a complex system and allow better supports to people with developmental disabilities.  I am pleased to have been asked to sit on this workgroup, and I am confident that we will work to develop positive changes for all stakeholders in the developmental disabilities system.

2024 will definitely be another important, busy year!

I want to thank all of you for your continued support throughout this year.  We look forward to a wonderful 2024!  I hope you all enjoy a safe, happy holiday season.

As always, if you need anything from us, please do not hesitate to reach out to your Service Coordinator, Early Childhood Primary Service Provider, Transition Coordinator, or call (513) 228-6400.  In cases of emergencies, please call 1-800-800-6847.  You can also check out our website at www.warrencountydd.org or our Facebook page.  Thank you for your support of the Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities!

To read more, please download and view PDF.

Fall has arrived, and as you will see when you continue to read through our newsletter, we have had a busy summer!  I’m sorry to see the summer go, but I’m also looking forward to the cooler weather and the upcoming holidays.  

Every year in September, we get to celebrate a group of people who are critical to the success of the developmental disabilities system – Direct Support Professionals (DSPs).  Across the United States, September 10 – 16, 2023 was Direct Support Professional Recognition Week.  On September 13, we held a DSP Appreciation Dinner for Warren County DSPs, where they received t-shirts, a gift, raffle prizes, dinner, and a magic show, all for free!  For DSPs who weren’t able to make it, we provided donuts and coffee the next morning, also with the free t-shirt and gift.  We are so fortunate to have the relationships we do with providers in Warren County. We are grateful that they are here to support people with developmental disabilities to enhance their lives by providing them with much needed services.

Because DSPs are so important to our system, we were very happy that the state budget was approved with additional funding to support increases for DSP wages.  The Governor and state legislators added money to the state budget, and then the 88 county boards of developmental disabilities added additional money to increase the average wages of DSPs.  As of January 1, 2024, the average wage of a DSP across the state will be $18 per hour, and as of July 1, 2024, the average wage of a DSP across the state will be $19 per hour.  While this is progress, we are hopeful there will be continued support for adjustments to help with the DSP workforce shortage.  We are grateful for the additional funding.  

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month!  There are a couple of really great stories in this newsletter regarding people we serve and their employment experiences.  If you are looking for employees at your business, and you would like more information about hiring someone we support, please feel free to reach out to our Community Employment Manager, Angela Dean at angela.dean@warrencountydd.org or (513) 228-6481.  You can explain to her what kind of employee you are looking for, ask her questions about our process, and/or find out if we have the perfect person just waiting for you! 

If you need anything from us, please do not hesitate to reach out to your Service Coordinator, Early Childhood Primary Service Provider, Transition Coordinator, or call (513) 228-6400.  In cases of emergencies, please call 1-800-800-6847.  You can also check out our website at www.warrencountydd.org or our Facebook page.  Thank you for your support of the Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities!

I remember when I was growing up, my dad used to say that the older he got, the faster time seemed to go.  As a kid, I couldn’t understand how that could possibly be true.  As an adult, I sure do understand it now.  It is hard to believe that 2023 is just about half over already!

As you may be aware, Warren County is the third fastest growing county in Ohio.  This growth is something we are experiencing here at the Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities too.  Since the beginning of 2018, the number of people we are serving has increased by 43%.  That is just a little over five years, and three of those years were during a pandemic.  We are pleased that we have been able to enroll all of the new people and meet all internal service needs that we personally provide, but like many areas around the county and state, we struggle to find employees to meet all needs for people.  We are currently working on a market assessment of our salary schedules to determine where we are in relation to our competitors.  We want to be able to retain and attract high quality employees in order to provide high quality services to people with developmental disabilities in Warren County and their families.    

We are currently waiting for the 2023 – 2025 state budget to be finalized and approved by Governor DeWine.  Every two years, the state legislature goes through the process to develop the budget, starting with the Governor, then to the House of Representatives, next to the Senate, then to the Conference Committee, and finally back to the Governor.  Our DD community has worked together to advocate for increased funding for higher wages for Direct Support Professionals (DSPs).  The Governor put money into his version of the budget for increased wages, and the House added additional funding into their version to increase the wages even higher.  County boards of developmental disabilities pledged additional dollars to increase DSP wages by another dollar per hour, and the Senate supported this increase, while also maintaining the amount the House included in their version of the budget.  We are appreciative of the support of the Governor and the legislators for agreeing that the DSPs who provide critical supports to people with developmental disabilities in Ohio need to be paid higher wages.  We now need to make sure the funding stays in the final approved budget! 

We are also waiting to see what other provisions will be in the final budget, as we know there will be some that will result in increased services for people, which is a good thing, but will also result in increased costs to us.  So, we are continuing to update our budget to ensure we are prepared for the upcoming effects of these changes, both in the near future and the long-term budget.

As always, if you need anything from us, please do not hesitate to reach out to your Service Coordinator, Early Childhood Primary Service Provider, Transition Coordinator, or call (513) 228-6400.  In cases of emergencies, please call 1-800-800-6847.  You can also check out our website at www.warrencountydd.org or our Facebook page.  Thank you for your support of the Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities!

To read more, please download and view PDF.

Once again, we started off the new year at the Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities (WCBDD) in full swing! I was glad to see the calendar turn over to 2023, and we got right down to business.

We had been preparing for our scheduled visit from the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities (DODD) for our three-year accreditation review, and on February 15th – 16th, the DODD team was at WCBDD.  The last time they were here for a review was in February 2020, which was right before the world shut down for the pandemic.  DODD’s team of reviewers spent two full days interviewing employees, board members, people we serve and family members.  They also reviewed many personnel files and files and records of individuals we serve.  Because they were reviewing information from the last three years, everything they reviewed had been completed during the national pandemic.  I am very pleased to say that after the two-day review, DODD determined we have continued to meet the standards to maintain the highest level of accreditation and once again received the maximum three-year accreditation.  I am very proud of the work our staff did over the last three years to ensure the people we serve received the needed services, while maintaining our DODD compliance.  I thank all of them for the hard work they do every day.  We have a great team at WCBDD!

March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.  In 1987, President Ronald Reagan recognized March as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month in order to “increase public awareness of the needs and potential of Americans with developmental disabilities and to provide the encouragement and opportunities they need to lead productive lives and to achieve their full potential.”

On March 14th, we held two open house sessions to celebrate Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, where the theme was ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, where we focused on how dreams really can come true.  We were fortunate to have Warren County Commissioner Shannon Jones join us for the afternoon session, where she presented a proclamation on behalf of the Warren County Commissioners declaring March as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.  We also had two fantastic speakers, Jennifer Jurin and Maggie Satterthwaite, who are adults served by the WCBDD, and they shared their personal journeys about how they dared to dream to make their dreams come true.    

For the evening session, Warren County Probate and Juvenile Court Judge, Joe Kirby joined us, and he presented a proclamation declaring March 2023 Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.  State Representative Scott Lipps then spoke to the crowd and shared his support for people with disabilities and the people who work in the developmental disabilities field.  Jennifer Jurin and Maggie Satterthwaite once again shared their stories, before the Voices of Warren County closed the evening Open House by singing two songs for us.  Finally, the night concluded with the Provider and Business Fair and raffling off several outstanding raffle baskets.  It was a great celebration for a great cause.  We really appreciate everyone who was able to join us and everyone who supports our agency and people with developmental disabilities.

If you need anything from us, please do not hesitate to reach out to your Service Coordinator, Early Childhood Primary Service Provider, Transition Coordinator, or call (513) 228-6400.  In cases of emergencies, please call 1-800-800-6847.  

You can also check out our website at www.warrencountydd.org or our Facebook page.  Thank you for your support of the Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities!

To read more, please download and view PDF.

Although I don’t usually make my opening article in our quarterly newsletter personal, I hope you’ll indulge me a little as I write this one. It is personal, yet still related. You see, on February 12, 2022, I lost the most amazing man I’ve  ever known – my father, Jerry Manuel. That is very personal. However, it is related because my dad spent almost 50 years working in the developmental disabilities field. He was my role model and my mentor, in more ways than one.

My dad started out in education as a teacher, became a principal for the school at the county board of developmental disabilities in Marion County, and he eventually became the Superintendent. For most of my childhood, my dad worked at “MARCA”, which is what the county board was known by in Marion. My dad was well known in Marion, and everywhere we went, we always ran into someone who knew him.

In 1991, my dad was given the opportunity to work in Governor Voinovich’s state cabinet as the Director of the (now) Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities. At the time, I didn’t realize what a huge responsibility that was. He served in this capacity for eight years, and tried to do all he could to make our state better for people with developmental disabilities. 

As always, if you need anything from us, please do not hesitate to reach out to your Service Coordinator, Early Childhood Primary Service Provider, Transition Coordinator, or call (513) 228 6400. In cases of emergencies, please call 1-800 800- 6847. You can also check out our website at www.warrencountydd.org or our Facebook page. Thank you for your support of the Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities! 

 To read the more please download and view PDF.

It is hard to believe that 2022 is almost over, but I am looking forward to 2023!  As we reflect on the past year, we are happy that we were able to hold all of our in-person agency events again.  The Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month Open House and Provider Fair, Egg Hunt, Things That Go!, and Family Fun Day were all held in 2022.

Looking forward to 2023, we will have our Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities (DODD) Accreditation review in February.  All county boards of developmental disabilities (CBDDs) are required to be accredited by DODD.  Our current three-year accreditation (which is the maximum) expires in April 2023.  We will be ready to show DODD all of the great things we are doing in Warren County.

The CBDDs throughout Ohio continue to work with our trade association, as well as the trade associations of providers and DODD regarding the upcoming state budget.  As mentioned in previous newsletters, we have a shortage of providers right now.  This shortage of providers became worse because of the pandemic.  We are working with these other groups and agencies to promote additional funding in the state budget for Direct Support Professional (DSP) wage increases.  Our system is competing with other companies outside our system for workers.  If we can provide better wages, it could help our providers with hiring and retaining quality employees.

We are in the process of updating our website, in order to make it more efficient and user friendly.  Our goal is for anyone who gets on our website to be able to find exactly what they are looking for and maybe more.  Thank you for your patience as the website is being updated.  We think you will enjoy the new version when it is completed.  

As we approach the end of this year, I hope you all have a safe, relaxing holiday season.  If you need anything from us, please do not hesitate to reach out to your Service Coordinator, Early Childhood Primary Service Provider, Transition Coordinator, or other WCBDD employee with whom you work.  We also always have someone on call 24 hours a day in cases of emergencies, including evenings, weekends and holidays.  If you have an emergency, please call 1-800-800-6847.

You can also check out our website at www.warrencountydd.org or our Facebook page.  Thank you for your support of the Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities!

I hope you have had a good start to your 2022! After the most recent surge in COVID cases, the numbers now thankfully seem to be decreasing again. At the Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities, we have continued to provide services to individuals with disabilities and their families. We have taken precautions and have off ered to meet with individuals and families virtually rather than in person for home visits, assessments, monitoring, team meetings, etc., if that is what they would prefer. We wanted to continue to offer services, but wanted to do it in whatever way families and individuals were most comfortable. We are hopeful that cases will continue to drop and that we are able to get back to more typical service delivery and events soon.

We are cautiously optimistic that we will be able to hold most of our in-person agency events this year. We hope that our first event will be our Open House in March to celebrated Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month. Our plan is to hold this event in conjunction with our provider fair, as we have done in the past. We have scheduled this for Tuesday, March 15th at the Warren C. Young Center. We will be sharing more specific information as we get closer to this event, as it will be pending the state of the pandemic as we get closer.

In early December, the Director of the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities (DODD) Jeff Davis, announced that he would be retiring as of December 31, 2021. Director Davis had served as the Director since being appointed by Governor DeWine in January 2019. We appreciate everything Director Davis did for our system and people with developmental disabilities over his three years serving in this role, especially during the two years he served during a worldwide pandemic. Governor DeWine announced that Kim Hauck, who was serving as a Deputy Director for DODD, would replace Director Davis on January 1, 2022. Director Hauck has spent many years in our system, including working for a provider, county board, and DODD. I look forward to working with her in her new role!

I appreciate your patience and cooperation as we continue to navigate through our new world in this pandemic. If you need anything from us, please do not hesitate to reach out to your Service Coordinator, Early Childhood Primary Service Provider, Transition Coordinator, or call (513) 228 6400. In cases of emergencies, please call 1-800 800-6847 or our Facebook page. Thank you for your support of the Warren County Board of Developmental Disabilities. 

 To read the more please download and view PDF.