Effective Relationships with Teams

Editors' Notes

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Frontline Initiative connects direct support professionals to issues that matter by telling stories, sharing best practices, and sharing resources that are important to their work

Julie and Chet, two women stand close to each other and look directly at the camera smiling. They are standing in front of a window with a large blue pillar behind them and a snow-covered building and tree branches. Julie Kramme on the left, smiling, shoulder length brown wavy hair, brown eyes, and wearing a plaid pink, orange, green, and tan top, with a collar open and zipped down a few inches. Chet Tschetter is on the right, smiling, with short brown and white hair, black-rimmed glasses, a blue oxford button-down shirt, with a blue tie, with "Peanuts: characters in small circles: Snoopy, Woodstock, Peppermint Patty, and Charlie Brown, with a black collar-less jacket with a white logo M, Institute on Community Integration, University of Minnesota.

Editors Julie Kramme and Chet Tschetter

Effective Relationships with Teams

The work of direct support includes many people. Direct support professionals (DSPs) work on a teams with the people they support, other DSPs, supervisors, family members or friends of the people supported, and often professional and community team members to support people’s desired outcomes. This issue of Frontline Initiative focuses on effective strategies for DSPs to build healthy relationships with others at work. This issue shows how DSPs and frontline supervisors are vital parts of teams and the work it takes to develop and sustain relationships, partner with others, provide mentoring, and work together to resolve conflicts and challenges. Sometimes, relationships break down, and DSPs struggle to deliver person-centered services. Also included in this issue are stories of strong frontline supervision and how the build teams of DSPs who feel supported on the job.

In this issue, we are introducing the Direct Support Workforce Update, a new strategy to inform direct support professionals and others. The Direct Support Workforce Update will focus on broad issues in the DSP workforce that we need to talk about. It includes information on issues and links readers can use to learn more. Also in this issue of Frontline Initiative, self-advocates BJ Stasio and Katrina Simons emphasizes how important it is for DSPs to focus on teamwork with them. Cheryl Dougan remembers how, years ago, DSPs supported her son, Renzo, to live the life he wants. Risk-averse policies and practices now limit DSPs, and Renzo is losing the quality of life he once enjoyed. Program Manager Sarah Sharp describes how her direct support team came together to provide better support and teamwork. Program Director Liz Rowntree overcame barriers so the men she supported became the neighbors they wanted to be. Kelly Burgess and Collen Casey are part of their employer’s Dream Builders team, which administers small grants so DSPs can work with people they support to meet a dream or goal.

Giselle Lemus and Laura Schenk explain how mentorship programs in their organizations support new DSPs to take on new job roles with confidence. DSP Nick Smith and manager Jason Colvin emphasize their values to develop and sustain teamwork. Callie Hall describes how she teams up with people with disabilities and supporters to create meaningful volunteer opportunities that benefit the community. Jacquie Foss describes how her organization’s DSPs collaborate in a stock ownership model, giving DSPs ownership together over the company’s operations. As always, DirectCourse Connect provides additional suggestions for DirectCourse training resources, helping DSPs and FLSs learn more and seek badges in the E-Badge Academy on Effective Relationships with Teams.

A Closer Look at Frontline Initiative Podcast

Listen to 10 episodes of A Closer Look at Frontline Initiative —where Chet Tschetter and Julie Kramme talk with authors from the magazine's latest issue about their experiences and best practices for supporting people. A Closer Look is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and many places where you access podcast content. Please follow A Closer Look to receive alerts when new podcasts become available.

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Frontline Initiative • Volume 21, Number 1 • 2025

Editors: Julie Kramme and Chet Tschetter

Marketing and communications: Jerry Smith

Graphic design: Connie Burkhart

Web developers: Shawn Lawler, Jonathon Walz, and Kristin Dean

Institute on Community Integration Director: Amy Hewitt

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Editorial board

  • Tony Anderson, Executive Director, Valley Mountain Regional Center
  • Wesley Anderson, Director of Employment & Community Services, National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services
  • Lisa Burck, Project Director, The Arc of Mississippi
  • Rachel Acevedo, New York State SUNY E-Badge Academy Credentialing Coordinator, NADSP
  • Mary Lawson, Executive Director, PAKS Developmental Services
  • Colleen McLaughlin, Associate Director, The Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Department of Pediatrics, Rutgers University
  • Diane Potts, Adjunct Professor, Tulsa Community College, NADSP Accreditation Review Team Coordinator
  • John Raffaele, Director of Educational Services and Editorial Board Chair, NADSP
  • Robert Schier, III, Down Home Ranch, Elgin, Texas
  • Eryn Starck, Executive Assistant, Oregon Resource Association

Web: nadsp.org

If you wish to contribute to Frontline Initiative, please contact:

Julie Kramme or Chet Tschetter, Institute on Community Integration, University of Minnesota, E-mail: frontline-dsp@umn.edu

View past issues of Frontline Initiative: z.umn.edu/frontlineinitiative

Frontline Initiative is supported through a cooperative agreement between the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Department of Education (#90RTCP0003) and the Research and Training Center on Community Living (RTC-CL) at the Institute on Community Integration (ICI), University of Minnesota, and the University Centers of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (#90DDUC0070). This issue is also supported through a cooperative agreement between the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD), the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (#03-8818-22), and the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP). The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the RTC-CL, ICI, University of Minnesota, NADSP, or their funding sources.

Frontline Initiative is available in alternate formats upon request.

The University of Minnesota stands on Miní Sóta Makhóčhe, the rightful homelands of the Dakhóta Oyáte. We recognize the U.S. did not uphold its end of these land treaties. It is the current and continued displacement of the Dakhóta Oyáte that allows the University to remain today.

Ongoing oppression and discrimination in the United States has led to significant trauma for many people of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, and other oppressed persons. At ICI, we affirm our commitment to address systemic racism, ableism and all other inequalities and forms of oppression to ensure inclusive communities.