National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals, New York
John Raffaele is the Director of Educational Services at the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals. John has a Masters of Social Work degree and is a highly experienced group worker, community organizer, educator and facilitator. John’s graduate education is from Yeshiva University in New York City and State University of New York at New Paltz, NY.
His career spans over three decades and those years have been spent teaching direct support professionals and the people they support. Most of the people with whom he has worked and supported over the last 30 plus years are people with intellectual/developmental disabilities, at-risk youth, and people with chronic and terminal illnesses in home-care settings. Between 2001 and 2012 John worked as a Director of Training and Education for a developmental disabilities service provider in New York and gained notoriety consulting and teaching throughout the United States. John also taught undergraduate and graduate human services classes at The State University at New Paltz, NY and for the City University of New York City.
John founded his own international direct support professional consulting company in 2012 and over the last several years, in contract with the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals and in close partnership with NADSP Executive Director Joseph Macbeth, has developed many exciting and informative training programs and helped propel the NADSP into national prominence. John became NADSP’s Director of Educational Services in December of 2016. John has educated tens of thousands of people in the NADSP Code of Ethics and Competencies and most recently, the NADSP Informed Decision Making curriculum and Frontline Supervisor Train the Trainer Curriculum.
The Why of the Direct Support Profession
This inspirational and informational session will address some of the issues that direct support professionals across North America are telling NADSP about their work, what they need to be successful and offer suggestions that promote the notion that “Quality is defined at the point of interaction” and how NADSP envisions that direct support professionals should walk side-by-side with those they support toward a life of freedom, dignity and choice. Raffaele will share some stories from the road, and some “uncomfortable truths” to make you consider things a little differently about the work of direct support professionals. We will end the keynote with one of the most inspirational videos that encapsulates the “why” of our beloved profession.