Park Lawn DSP wins Nationwide Contest

We always said that we have the best staff here at Park Lawn! Congratulations to our very own Tashianna Burage for winning the nationwide contest, 2018 Direct Support Professional Recognition, sponsored by the eVero Corporation!

The contest was based on nominating your favorite DSP in a post on your page by detailing their incredible service to the community, and compiling all the entries. The person with the most Likes on their photo at the end wins! Tashianna has her choice of a FREE Smart Watch or Nintendo Switch!

We would also like to recognize our other nominees Whitney Edwards, Kerrie Kupfer, April Watkins & Emanda Watts! We are proud to have you as part of our team and look forward to your future contributions.

Tashianna's Success Story

My name is Tashianna and I am a Job Coach here at Park Lawn. My success story is about a participant named Craig.

When I took over the employment site where Craig worked, I noticed him immediately. He's a big, strong guy who worked just as good (if not better) than the full-time employees. Although Craig was a great worker, he was a man of very few words; a gentle giant if you will. The most he would say is "good morning" or "see you later." Craig had a communication goal which required me to have a conversation with him 3 out of 5 days a week. Pretty easy, huh? Well, the first couple of months were pretty rocky. Craig would give one-word answers to all of my questions and seem very uninterested in talking to me. I needed to try a different approach. I started paying extra attention to Craig to see what catches his attention outside of doing his job.

One day as I was walking down one of the aisles, I heard a voice singing. Me being curious, I went to see who it was. It was Craig! "Every Little Step" by Bobby Brown was playing over the speakers and Craig was dancing, singing, and snapping his fingers to the music while stocking the shelves. It was absolutely adorable! After watching him for a few moments, I used this as an opportunity to spark a conversation and see where it goes. I went over to Craig and said, "I see you like Bobby Brown! I do too!!" Craig's eyes lit up and he began to name different songs by Bobby Brown as well as other artists he liked as well. We chatted for about 60 seconds (way longer than any conversation we've had!). This was awesome! Craig loved music! And he thought it was cool that I liked some of the same music he did.

Using music as a segway into other topics, I discovered Craig also enjoyed basketball, video games, and shopping on eBay. When I found out Craig had mutual interests as his peers, I encouraged conversation amongst the group, which worked out pretty well! Eventually, Craig would begin to initiate conversation w/others and me. He would ask questions like, "what are you doing when you get off?" or "how was your weekend?" It was really cool!

Now, some people could say, "well, Craig just needed to warm up to you." While this could be true, I've witnessed Craig communicating minimally with his co-workers and peers that he's worked with for the past 11 years. Instead of just asking Craig a couple of questions every day for the sake of tracking data, I paid attention to Craig and improvised. After months of short, one word answers, we were able to have effective, 2-way conversation. While this may not be a success for the world, it definitely made my heart smile. Sometimes, paying attention to little things can make life (and your job) so much better.