Congratulations to CIS’s own Hayden Howard and Andrew Jeffrey Wright, recipients of the Employment 1st Award and the Cultural Arts Award at the recent Points of Transformation Awards, hosted by Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services.

This important celebration honors the life changing and often unsung work of Direct Support Professionals working with people with disabilities throughout the city. In addition to our two award winners, we were thrilled to see CIS nominee Alexandria Broxton win the Support Coordination Award and CIS nominees Brianaliz Oyola and Jazar Hall receive Honorable Mention for their outstanding work.

The day was filled with music, dancing, and moving speeches from a range of disability services champions across Philadelphia and throughout the state, from State Representative Joseph Hohenstein and former State Representative Steven Kinsey to a video message from Mayor Cherelle Parker.

As we celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month, the event really brought home how vital and difference-making is the work of every person employed in disability services: “You do this, often, in very quiet ways,” said DBHIDS Commissioner Kehinde Solanke. “Helping someone get dressed for the day, helping someone apply for a job, helping someone get to an appointment: these may seem like small things,” she reminded the crowd, “but each one is a point of transformation.”

Congratulations to Hayden, Andrew, and all who devote themselves each day to this important work