In February 2025, IMPACT published a feature issue dedicated to exploring all aspects of self-directed services and supports for people with intellectual, developmental, and other disabilities. The Institute on Disabilities at Temple University is proud to be included in this feature issue, and to share how we worked closely with our state Office of Developmental Programs to professionalize supports brokering throughout Pennsylvania.

IMPACT is published three times per year by the Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota. Each issue contains strategies, research, and success stories in specific focus areas related to persons with intellectual, developmental, and other disabilities. It provides practical information useful to professionals in a variety of fields, including educators, community service providers, policymakers, and advocates, as well as persons with disabilities and their families.

Professionalizing the Supports Broker Role

by Jamie Ray-Leonetti

Over the last decade, The Institute on Disabilities at Temple University (IOD) has partnered with Values Into Action, a provider of services to people with disabilities who self-direct, to create systems change so that individuals with disabilities are able to design, choose and control their own services and supports.

Initially, Temple IOD received a grant from our Developmental Disabilities Council to, among other things, educate families, individuals with disabilities, and providers about the availability of participant-directed services, also known as consumer-directed or self-directed services. In 2018, we continued this work with a second Developmental Disabilities Council grant, which continued to build, expand, and improve the participant-directed model in Pennsylvania. In 2022-2023, we embarked on efforts to professionalize the supports broker role through a skills certification process that is supported by our Office of Developmental Programs.

Participant-Directed Services

Participant-directed services are home and community-based services (HCBS) that help people of all ages across all types of disabilities maintain their independence and determine for themselves what mix of personal assistance supports and services work best for them.

State Models

Participant direction, also known as self-direction, means that the participant or their surrogate (representative) has decided to become a common law employer or a managing employer. To do this, you must use a financial management service (FMS) or an agency with choice (AWC). Common law employers or managing employers can make decisions about some or all of the supports and services authorized in the participant’s person-centered individual support plan (ISP).

Aligning with principles of self-determination and person-centered planning, participant direction provides a model for people with disabilities to have more control over where, when, how, and by whom their supports are provided.

What is a Supports Broker?

A supports broker provides a waiver-funded service available to people who are using the person-and family-directed, community living, or consolidated waivers in Pennsylvania and choose to self-direct one or more of their waiver-funded services and supports.

A supports broker may assist a waiver participant or a common law or managing employer with employment related functions, including to ensure compliance with waiver rules and enhancing natural, unpaid supports that relate to self-direction.

In Pennsylvania, a supports broker is a professional who must be certified and complete a re-certification every three years. Pennsylvania supports brokers must also comply with standards required by the Office of Developmental Programs.

The Need for Certification and Re-Certification

Effective January 2023, Pennsylvania amended its intellectual disability waivers to, among other things, require an updated certification course for anyone seeking to become a supports broker, and re-certification of all current supports brokers. Our updated certification and re-certification courses set standards and expectations for all certified supports brokers and place an emphasis on the necessary partnership between a waiver participant and their supports broker. A two-day online training includes documentation requirements, reportable incidents, basic employment law, principles of self-determination and person-centered planning, among other topics.

The re-certification training includes compliance with regulations, developing natural (unpaid) supports, and concepts in self-advocacy.

Real Outcomes for Real People

To highlight the growth of participant-directed services, we invited waiver participants from across the state to write about the importance of these services in their lives. Several stories came from people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who use supports broker services. These “PDS stories” can be found on IOD’s website.

We encourage readers to check out what these participants had to say about the importance of their supports brokers. This was funded by the Developmental Disabilities Council.

Next Steps

As the number of people choosing to self-direct and use the supports broker service continues to grow, we must protect the integrity of the service by promoting high-quality self-direction on both state and national levels. We seek to recruit and train support service professionals (SSPs), supports brokers (SBs), and peer mentors (PMs) to support self-direction.

This is our focus because we believe it is imperative to expand the pool of qualified and motivated support service professionals, including certified supports brokers. Anyone and everyone should have the option and the support to self-direct if they choose, and we believe people with disabilities will want to choose self-direction after seeing peers self-directing with success.

Jamie Ray-Leonetti is associate director of policy at the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. jamie.ray-leonetti@temple.edu.

Read this article in the IMPACT feature issue.