About Us
Meet Ade Obadare and the Questions That Guide My Work
By Ade Obadare, Founder and CEO of Elevate Spectrum
When you're looking for support for someone you love, you want to understand the people behind the organization. You want to know what they pay attention to and whether they'll listen to what matters to your family.
I'm Ade Obadare, founder and CEO of Elevate Spectrum. We support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families in Maryland. Some of you may know us by our former name, Companions.
Our organization has provided support since 2005, working with participants in both provider managed and self-directed services. That experience informs my perspective, but I want to begin with the questions that guide my work.
What is the person’s day actually like
A service description can tell you what an organization offers. It doesn't necessarily tell you what that service will feel like at home on a Tuesday morning.
Will the staff member arrive when expected? Will they understand how the person communicates? Will the participant have time to make a choice instead of having the decision made for them?
Those details matter to me because they're where a service becomes part of someone's life. A family may be trying to keep a familiar routine, maintain a trusted relationship, or make an activity possible. We need to understand that before discussing how an arrangement might work.
What is already working
When families explore a different support option, they may have things they want to protect as well as things they want to change.
Perhaps a DSP knows their loved one well, but the employment arrangement has become difficult. Perhaps the schedule works, but the family needs another person who can learn the routines.
A DSP is a direct support professional: someone employed to help a person with the support they need in everyday life.
I think it's useful to identify those strengths early. A conversation about services should recognize the knowledge and relationships that already exist. Families shouldn't have to explain only what's going wrong to help us understand what they need.
Does the arrangement make sense for everyone involved
The participant's preferences need to guide support. The staff member also needs clear duties and a workable job. Families need to understand their role, and the provider needs to carry out its responsibilities.
This is part of how I think about Elevate's Agency With Choice option. Participants take an active role in choosing and managing their DSPs, while Elevate employs the staff and handles its responsibilities within the arrangement.
That option involves practical questions as well as personal choices. We need to discuss both honestly.
A useful place to begin
If you're thinking about your family's support, start with two short lists: what you want to keep and what you want to improve. Include the participant's preferences in whatever way works for them.
That gives a future conversation some direction. It also makes room for the parts of life that can get lost when we focus only on service names and paperwork.
As you get to know me through this series, that's the perspective I want to share: understanding the person's life first, then working through what the support needs to do.