PATHS Direct Support Professional Training

ARC Broward’s Learning Institute is the only learning provider in the State of Florida offering the PATHS training program. PATHS is an educational program specifically designed for Direct Support Professionals (a.k.a. social and human service workers) working with children and adults with disabilities. The PATHS curriculum was designed by subject matter experts based on national best practice models, such as the Community Support Skills Standards and the National Alliance of Direct Support Professionals' Code of Ethics. The training program offers sequential credentials that teach, reinforce and build upon the essential skills of a highly qualified Direct Support Professional.

• The PATHS program is a “competency-based” credential program consisting of 240 hours of classroom training that includes 160 hours of specialized training, 40 hours of state mandated training for workers who support children and adults with disabilities and 40 hours of employability and life skills training. Additionally, students are provided with up to 16 hours per week of work experience in real life settings located at the agency’s main campus and residential programs. Upon completion, graduates earn the opportunity to apply for a national credential that has value in the marketplace and is transferable locally, statewide and nationally. Not only are PATH courses built around instruction, followed by a series of tests designed to measure what students know, but additionally students complete an extensive portfolio that documents their skills which are a collection of samples of what they know and are able to do demonstrating.

• PATHS' mission is clear: to operate a competency-based and credentialed career path for Direct Support Professionals (DSP). And its vision is a future in which Florida has a stable and sufficient pool of highly skilled professionals who are willing and able to support people with developmental and other disabilities.

• PATHS is grounded in the principles of self-direction and self-determination — and a belief that all Floridians with disabilities should have access to high-quality, community-based supports that are provided by skilled professionals who are committed to their physical, social and emotional well-being and personal security.
PATHS recognizes that the needs and interests of people with developmental and other disabilities will be jeopardized if the availability of a stable, quality direct support workforce is not assured. Therefore, its students are drawn from several sources:

Workers currently employed by private agencies,
Independent providers employed by families and people with disabilities; and
Individuals who are interested in launching a career as a Direct Support Professional including those persons referred through Workforce One.

The PATHS program is currently funded by Workforce One.