With Labor Day behind us and DSP Recognition Week (September 13–19) just ahead, it’s a good moment to slow down and talk about the people who make GoodLife’s work possible in the first place: Direct Support Professionals and Professional Neighbors across Kansas and Arkansas.
What is a Direct Support Professional?
A Direct Support Professional, or DSP, is the person who shows up for the moments that make up a life: getting ready in the morning, cooking a meal, catching a ride to work, learning something new, or just sitting on the porch at the end of a long day. At GoodLife, DSPs support adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) with daily living skills, community involvement, and personal goals, all while building real, long-term relationships rather than clocking in and out of a shift.
Professional Neighbors take that a step further. As part of GoodLife’s Neighborhood Network model, they live permanently in the community they support, available 24/7 to help virtually or in person as needs come up: cooking, laundry, errands, scheduling neighborhood activities, and teaching people the skills to self-direct more of their own support over time. It isn’t a shift job. It’s a relationship built to last.
It’s steady, relationship-driven work, and it’s some of the most essential work happening in either state. It also doesn’t get talked about nearly enough, which is exactly what DSP Recognition Week exists to change.
The difference the right career path makes
GoodLife University, our research partnership with the University of Kansas, has spent years studying what actually keeps skilled, caring people in this field. Across a national study of provider agencies using GoodLife’s staffing model, the same 3-day workweek and premium pay approach used across GoodLife Innovations, the results were hard to argue with:
- Full-time DSP staffing climbed from 76% to 96%, well above the 69% national average
- Unplanned overtime dropped from just over 10% of payroll to under 1.5%
- DSPs working 3-day or 4-day weeks consistently put in more of their scheduled hours than DSPs on a standard 5-day week, because more real days off makes people want to pick up extra shifts, not avoid them
In other words, when the schedule respects a DSP’s life outside of work, people stay, and the people they support get more consistent, experienced care because of it.
Built around what DSPs actually said they wanted
When GoodLife asked DSPs directly what would make this work sustainable, pay came first, but right behind it were flexible schedules, more days off, the ability to work extra when they wanted to, and a real work/life balance. That research shaped the job itself:
- 3-day work weeks for many direct support roles, instead of the standard five
- Never working alone — support is structured as a team, not a solo shift
- Premium weekend pay for the hours that are hardest to staff
- Competitive wages: $19–$20/hour for DSPs, and $28–$30/hour (plus non-taxable housing) for Professional Neighbors
Direct support work has historically been underpaid relative to what it actually demands, and the workforce shortages across Kansas and Arkansas are a direct result. Paying it like the skilled, essential work it is isn’t just fair. It’s how GoodLife keeps experienced people in these roles long enough to build the kind of relationships this work depends on.
In their own words
“I didn’t expect a job to change how I see my own life, but this one did. Having real days off in a row means I actually get to use them, and I still get to be there for the people I support when it matters.”
— Shane
Join us
GoodLife is growing in Wichita, across Kansas, and now into Northwest Arkansas, and that growth depends entirely on people willing to do this work well. If you’ve ever thought about a career where the schedule respects your life and the work actually matters, DSP Recognition Week is as good a week as any to take a closer look.
[See open DSP and Professional Neighbor positions at mygoodlife.org/careers →]
