Tri-C's Corporate College plays an integral role in retention at Koinonia Homes

August 07, 2017

The frontline managers at Koinonia Homes are essential to the success of the organization’s mission.

Without trained, motivated managers, the Independence-based nonprofit would not be able to provide the structure and leadership necessary to assist more than 500 area adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Koinonia Homes provides access to housing, activities and job opportunities – among other services -- to Northeast Ohio’s intellectually and developmentally disabled. Empowering their frontline managers – called direct support professionals, or DSPs – in turn empowers members of a vulnerable population to live a more meaningful, fulfilling life.

DSPs need ongoing training to continually provide excellent service. To assist in that training, Koinonia Homes partnered with Corporate College to develop a training curriculum for nearly 50 DSPs. The curriculum was designed to bolster leadership skills, interpersonal communication skills and additional competencies specific to serving the developmentally disabled.

By partnering with Corporate College, Koinonia Homes has further strengthened its ability to serve the community, provide career paths for its employees and ultimately improve the organization's ability to retain great talent. Industrywide, nonprofits experience a DSP retention rate of 25 percent. Koinonia’s DSP retention rate is 72 percent.

Koinonia Homes recently won an Archer Award, which celebrates human resources excellence in area companies. Follow the link for the full write-up in Crain’s Cleveland Business.