Saturday Respite in Brookville
How can someone be everywhere at once? Chantal Joseph, Respite Supervisor, has worked in developmental disability care for nearly 40 years, starting her career as a DSP. You can sometimes find her at our Friday Night Dance Respite service or covering a shift in one of our 25+ group home locations. Despite where you bump into Chantal, the response from the people she supports is always the same: happy to see her.
Each week, she engages her Saturday respite crew in new activities that are based on everyone who attends personal preferences. Their activities are centered in inclusivity, fostering independence, and solidifying better habits.
“I enjoy seeing people supported have fun, while at the same time parents have a much-deserved break,” Chantal said. 
Her team consists of a manger from another department and two young upcoming care providers who are eager to learn and work with this population.
They eat breakfast together, which they like to refer to as The Breakfast Club. They play sports and games; they play trivia, hang man and bingo; they paint nails and chit-chat; they do arts and crafts; they go on walks; but really, they’ve become a great group of friends.
“We are always working on our skills and becoming more independent,” Chantal said.
At lunch time, they remind each other not to talk with your mouth full and to put your lunch box away when you’re done eating. After lunch is done, they all pick a chore and help to clean up.
When they paint their nails, they remind each other to let them dry before getting up from the table. After they’re dry, they pick which activity they want to do next.
When they play hang man, they take turns guessing a letter – some by shouting their guess out loud and others that are nonverbal go up to the screen and point to the letter they want to guess.
Many attendees of Saturday respite also participate in Virtual Connections, one of our daily respite services. When they come here, they get to catch up with the familiar faces they see in virtual throughout the week and create friendships that exist outside of our services.