Sara Brandenburg

The Arc of East Central Iowa provides many different services to individuals who live with a disability, but my role at the Arc is working in the daycare and enrichment program. As a Direct Service Professional (DSP) I am responsible for caring for individuals with a variety of different disabilities. It is my job to make sure these individuals stay safe, receive proper care, and have fun during their time at the daycare. I work with individuals over a wide age range, from about six years old, all the way up to about 40 years old. Some of my responsibilities include toileting individuals, feeding individuals, and dealing with behaviors. As a DSP, it is also important for me to interact with individuals despite their level of communication, and to make sure that these individuals are allowed to make choices for themselves. I am not working as many hours at The Arc since moving to Iowa City for school, but I am still working when I can so that I am able to maintain my employment with The Arc. One thing I did a lot of when I was consistently working at The Arc was something called Supported Community Living (SCL). This is when I would work one-on-one with an individual to work on reaching goals that have previously been set for them.