2-19-2025 4:50am

Smoothies Lead To

New Westminster DSP Savoring “Breakthrough” Opportunities

Tropical Smoothie led to “forever job”

Penn-Mar DSP Susan Wagner supports a gentleman at Penn-Mar who loves to stop in at Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Westminster for a frosty treat. It was there that they met Lydia Haines, a part-time worker who often took their order.

Over time they developed a friendly relationship and Susan came to learn that Lydia was studying social work at nearby Carroll Community College.

When she noticed that Lydia’s hours were being cut back, she passed along her business card and suggested she consider a career as a Direct Support Professional (DSP).

Lydia was pursuing a degree in social work because she always knew she wanted to be in a career field that helped people, preferably with “person-to-person” work.

She served as a “helper” to siblings with disabilities at her church’s Vacation Bible School and often spoke to her in-laws about their careers teaching children with disabilities. The opportunity definitely aligned with her interests.

Lydia eventually applied to Penn-Mar for the DSP position and joined the Westminster branch last November where she supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in the community.

“It is amazing how everything has unfolded,” said Lydia. “This job offers me amazing opportunities to have breakthroughs with the people I support.”

An extremely social person, Lydia has the natural ability to make the people she supports feel comfortable with her. She wholeheartedly embraces their suggestions for outings and is determined to enhance their experiences however she can.

With the weight of knowing she was supporting someone else’s child, she was admittedly nervous on her first day out. “I was very aware that his parents were transferring his care into my hands.”

Lydia adheres to Penn-Mar’s person-centered approach which allows the individual to “lead the entire support,” choosing how they want to spend their time out in the community.

So when the gentleman she first supported wanted to play games, they headed off to his favorite arcade. “We had lots of fun, even though he enjoyed beating me at every racing, hunting, basketball and Skee ball game,” she remembered with a laugh.

Another person she supported opted to spend his day in the car listening to Sports Radio. Lydia used their time together to pull up YouTube videos that he enjoyed watching. She even enrolled in a free trial offer with Sirius XM to listen to music, sports and entertainment on the radio.

On their second day together, they joined another Penn-Mar group at a ReStore. He eagerly popped out of the car after Lydia carefully explained to him what was going on inside and he eventually completed one of his goals by signing up to volunteer there after she told him about the opportunity.

Later Lydia took the gentleman over to the Westminster office to join a peer mentoring program so he could hang out with other people. Her supervisor and other team members there were shocked to see him enter the conference room as he had never made it farther than the area outside the room on earlier visits.

“I am blessed with being able to put myself in other people shoes,” said Lydia. “I always try to keep in mind how a person would like things to be done and what they might want and need to feel comfortable in a community setting.”

Lydia doesn’t see herself ever leaving Penn-Mar. “This is definitely my forever job,” she says. “When I first started here, I thought about a future in upper-level management. But it would be extremely hard for me to not be supporting people one-on-one. I plan to participate in the Career Ladders program in the hope of one day becoming a senior DSP.

I feel like everything has been laid out for me so far, for which I’m extremely grateful!”