Creativity-Ability + DSPs
Creativity-Ability draws from the practices and principles of progressive art studios to help organizations strengthen how Direct Support Professionals recognize and respond to the interests, preferences, decisions, and knowledge present in the people they support.
Progressive studios show us how much can be learned by paying close attention to how someone engages - where attention settles, what sustains it, how choices are made, and how interests and preferences take shape through continued experience.
C-A brings these approaches to facilitation beyond the art studio and into day habilitation and other adult program services.
C-A draws from progressive studio practice, using ideas from art education, occupational and physical therapy, psychology, and creativity research to help translate these practices for DSPs.
For DSPs, this means becoming more attuned to the interests and preferences that emerge through everyday activity and interaction - and more confident in knowing how to respond to and build on them.
The goal is not simply to increase engagement, but to better understand what sustains it and how it could grow.
A shared language helps DSPs and teams talk about what they are noticing, build on one another’s understanding, and carry that knowledge forward.
Who It’s For
Disability service organizations employing Direct Support Professionals, including day habilitation, community-based, vocational, and employment programs.
Workshops, Training & Consultation
C-A works with organizations to strengthen the facilitation skills of Direct Support Professionals.
Workshops and training focus on recognizing what sustains a person’s engagement and developing ways to build on their interests, preferences, and abilities.
C-A also helps teams develop a shared language so that what one DSP learns through experience can inform the support provided by others.
Offerings range from individual workshops and staff trainings to longer-term partnerships shaped around the needs of a program.
For further information, email brian@creativity-ability.com
From the C-A Blog
These posts offer a closer look at ideas that shape C-A’s approach to facilitation and direct support.
Mid-Journey Language
On finding language for what happens while someone is still exploring, experimenting, and developing—not only describing the outcome.
People is a Verb
On understanding people through attention, action, interaction, and change rather than treating identity or ability as something fixed.
What Does Getting Better Look Like?
A look at how growth can become visible through changes in attention, decision-making, preferences, and the ways someone engages over time.
What’s Found Before It’s Known?
On following interest and curiosity, and creating opportunities for discovery without needing to determine the outcome in advance.
