Why Employees at the Center for Disability Services Stay for the Long Haul
Ask people who work at the Center for Disability Services why they stayed, and a pattern shows up fast: nearly all of them started out looking for a paycheck and found something they didn’t expect to care about this much. With more than 2,000 employees supporting individuals across the Capital Region and North Country CFDS has built a workforce where staying five, ten, even thirty years isn’t the exception. It’s common.
Take Masequa Eaddy. She joined as a Direct Support Professional 17 years ago, mainly because she needed stable work. Today she’s a Program Manager.
When I first joined the Center for Disability Services, I was simply looking for a stable job that would allow me to provide for my son. But once I started working in one of the homes, I quickly realized this was so much more than just a job.
— Masequa Eaddy, Program Manager
That shift, from job to purpose, tends to happen fast for CFDS employees. Direct Support Professionals don’t need a caregiving background to start; the Center trains on the job and builds in room to move into supervisory and leadership roles as staff grows. On the clinical side, nurses and clinical assistants at Center Health Care get the same kind of runway: this past year, a Clinical Assistant used the Center’s tuition reimbursement to become a registered nurse, and an LPN advanced to RN.
It’s not only clinical and direct-support roles. Teachers and teaching assistants build long-term careers in CFDS classrooms, some earning certifications and advanced degrees along the way. And the transportation and maintenance teams that keep the Center’s facilities running get the same investment in pay, benefits, and flexibility as every other role.
Currently, seventy CFDS employees have been with the organization for more than 30 years — proof that a career here can take root in almost any direction.
Read the full story, “At the Center for Disability Services, Care Becomes a Career,” from Times Union Story Studio.
Explore open roles at CFDS, or call 518-437-5870.