The College of Direct Support (CDS)

The College of Direct Support (CDS) “Educating a workforce of Direct Support Professionals to support individuals with disabilities is what we do – “Building Careers, Supporting Lives.” Our curriculum, values and mission are based on the premise that all people should live life to its fullest in community-based settings.

The College of Direct Support is a learning gateway for contemporary best practices for Direct Support Professionals. By incorporating web-based learning, backed by nationally recognized curricula, the CDS is designed to help support a profession of direct care.

ABOUT CDS

The College of Direct Support -- CDS -- did not happen overnight, but it has come quite a distance in three years in fulfilling its commitment to train and celebrate a workforce of direct care professionals nationwide. CDS is a web-based learning management system available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for learners to improve their skills in caring for people across disabilities.

CDS now reaches learners in 25 states from coast to coast with approximately 40,000 people making use of the training on a daily basis. We are training direct support workers in California, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota, Mississippi, Kansas, Tennessee, South Dakota, New Hampshire and Missouri, to name a few.

Our training curriculum is infused with a set of values and skill standards to train Direct Support Professionals and their supervisors and managers as they support people in community-based settings. Values such as inclusion, honored rights, leading self-determined lives and ethical, values-based treatment, among others, are at the core of CDS training and our mission.

We invite you to spend time with us here at the College of Direct Support and learn exactly what we do, who does it and where. We are all about improving the lives of those with disabilities and thus improving the lives of their families by “Building Careers and Supporting Lives.” That’s the collective vision for the people we serve."