Posts Tagged "2015 changes"
Leadership Changes at OSSA: Larry Deal
Our organization is welcoming new leadership for the first time in nearly five years. We’ll be posting a series of articles over the next couple of weeks to introduce our new officers. We invite you to follow along and get to know us a little bit better. The association of the 14 Brokerages (Oregon Support Services Association) formed back in 2010, as a way to work together to achieve our common goals. Since 2015, Larry Deal has served OSSA as its President, offering wise counsel and thoughtful planning to the association as we have grown. Elected at the same time as Executive Director Katie Rose was hired, the two have worked closely together to negotiate the...
Read MoreA Diversity of Services Requires A Diversity of Providers
Community-based services are different. In 2001, Oregon made a deep investment in community supports when it began to develop Support Services Brokerages. This style of service, which seeks to serve people where and how they wish to live, is very different from the institutional settings of the past. People make different choices when you let them, they express different needs than you might have anticipated–they surprise you. Oregon found that community-based services demanded a wider diversity of providers. People inviting workers into their homes expected different things from those providers: willingness to take direction directly from the individual as...
Read MoreOSSA’s Vision for the Future of Disability Services in Oregon
Sometimes, in the midst of change, it is hard to see the way forward. Oregon’s system of services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities once felt like it had a clear identity as a national leader for progressive, community-based service. We closed down institutions. We gave control to the people using the services. We showed that giving people self-determination can not only be right, it can also be cost-effective, good business. Somewhere, in the crush of change and hurtling, forward momentum, we have lost the clarity of that identity. Now is the time to work to reclaim that pioneering spirit at the heart of our state. Make no mistake,...
Read MoreBrokerage Association Announces Leadership Changes in 2015
In the spirit of the new year, the Oregon Support Services Association announces two changes in leadership. Larry Deal, Executive Director of Independence Northwest brokerage, has assumed the role of OSSA President. He follows in the footsteps of Margaret Theisen, whose tenure spanned the birth of the brokerage association and four incredible years of unprecedented growth and change. We are deeply indebted and grateful to Margaret for her influential and principled leadership. Margaret passed the torch to Larry after the association’s Board of Directors meeting in December. Larry brings with him 13 years experience in Oregon’s Support Services system,...
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