Resource Center

ARRM Cares

An Opportunity to Recognize Direct Support Professionals (DSPs)

The ARRM Cares Award was established to recognize professionals from ARRM members who provide direct care and demonstrate a commitment to quality services. ARRM supports and encourages our members to acknowledge their employees’ dedication and service through this award process. All nominees are recognized by ARRM and their employers as the top our field has to offer, while six winners are selected each year who represent outstanding and extraordinary dedication, innovation and skill. Winners receive a $1,000 award and are celebrated in a special ceremony. 

DSPs are nominated who represent the ideal skills and values below, which not only makes them valuable employees but also highly talented and successful in supporting people to reach their goals:

  • Professional Integrity: supporting persons served while maintaining high standards to benefit persons served, co-workers, and the organization
  • Networking Supports: advocating to connect persons served with natural support systems
  • Creative, Innovative, Person Centered Approaches to Services: personalizing services, demonstrating an ability to develop and implement new approaches and sharing successful results

Nominees must meet the criteria below to be considered. All nominations are printed for event attendees and may be shared publicly by ARRM. Please ensure that submissions are professionally written and do not include confidential information. Nominations are subject to editing by the selection committee for length, consistency, clarity, and grammar.

Employees eligible for nomination meet the following criteria:

  • An agency must be an ARRM Member to submit a nomination
  • Staff must do direct care for at least 75 percent of their total job
  • Each agency may nominate up to 2 percent of their staff who provide direct care to persons served (maximum number of nominations per organization is 8)
  • One nominee per form – no group nominations (i.e., please don't nominate an entire program site)
  • Two hundred (200) word limit for each of the submission categories – additional words will be edited prior to consideration
  • Submit a photo with the nomination

ARRM Cares Award logo

Direct Support Professionals Appreciation Week in Duluth - WDIO-TV

Direct Support Professionals honored for service and dedication - KTTC-TV

Award Winning Direct Support Professionals - North Dakota Today

Duluth woman honored for work with Tender Loving Care - Duluth News Tribune

Local disability support workers recognized for excellence - Hutchinson Leader

Hope Residence Team Member Nominated for ARRM Cares Award - Belle Plaine Herald

Destiny's work: Bemidji social worker nominated for state care provider award - Bemidji Pioneer

Range Center employee nominated for statewide award - CBS3-TV

Learn More About Our 2023 Nominees

2023 ARRM Cares Winners

ARRM is excited to announce its four 2023 ARRM Cares Award winners and two Rising Star Award winners! Congratulations!

Katie Hensel

ARRM Cares Award Winner
14 Years of Service

Katie leads with compassion, empowerment, high expectations, and vision. She knows how to listen beyond the words and most importantly she is responsive to what she hears. Katie then organizes, plans, ensures staff support, and always follows through. Constantly, she applies a person-centered approach to those she serves, her co-workers, and our organization. Katie is always listening and teaching.

She does this by not only challenging herself, but her co-workers and supervisors to be solution based and to think creatively. Katie is a caring and loving person with remarkable integrity and grace. She embodies the definition of a Direct Support Professional and an inspirational leader. READ MORE ABOUT KATIE.

Bea Morehouse

ARRM Cares Award Winner
22 Years of Service

Beatrice Morehouse is the gold standard when it comes to commitment and professional integrity. She has been working tirelessly with person served for almost 25 years. Her unwavering devotion to her work is nothing short of inspirational, and her passion for making a difference in the lives of those she serves is truly remarkable.


Over the years, we have witnessed firsthand the incredible impact she has had on the lives of the people she supports. She is the epitome of what it means to be truly dedicated to the welfare and happiness of others. READ MORE ABOUT BEA.

Annette Ripley

ARRM Cares Award Winner
7 Years of Service

Annette is creative and always tries to make people feel seen and heard. She makes breakfast wraps with different ingredients and keeps them available in the freezer for the people served to heat up for breakfast. She also recently purchased a waffle maker for the house and keeps the freezer stocked with a variety of homemade waffles for the people served so that they always have the option of a homemade meal for breakfast. When preparing the weekly menu, everyone has input, and the opportunity to choose meals they like. She does this to give options and choices, and to ease the work for other staff. She also helps in a larger way than breakfast. We all know that we are in a staffing crisis and that our industry is hanging on by a thread. Without people like Annette, it would almost be impossible to do the essential work we do. She has covered shifts in dozens of our homes. Annette is always the first person to step in and save the day, sometimes working at houses an hour away. When asked why she is willing to do this, her answer is simple, 'because they need me.' Leave no room for doubt, we need her just as much. READ MORE ABOUT ANNETTE.

Sue Stone

ARRM Cares Award Winner
40 Years of Service

Sue's 40 year career as a Direct Support Professional has been supporting people in their own homes with SILS and IHS services. She listens carefully to dreams and desires and the puts an action plan in place. A person she serves with SILS services wanted to visit a dear friend in AZ and Sue planned flights, hotels and logistics while consulting with her supervisor to discuss how to use the limited hours of funding and avoid overtime by volunteering her time. Without the sacrifice of her time and understanding the difficulty of paying her for all the unfunded hours of work, this trip may not have been possible. What mattered to Sue was creating the trip of a lifetime for the person served and she was able to deliver through flexibility and putting the outcome as the primary focus. READ MORE ABOUT SUE.

Rising Star Award Winner
1.5 Years of Service

Quinn works in a home where her clients struggle with negativity. Quinn has brought positivity, and self-love into her clients'
lives. Quinn created an 'I am' board at the site, which consists of a mirror surrounded by positive affirmations. Every time her
clients walk out the door, they can see themselves in the mirror with those statements as a positive reminder. This has helped
remind them to look for the positive each day! READ MORE ABOUT QUINN.

Ryan Orstad

Rising Star Award Winner
1 Year of Service

One of the individuals Ryan works with has been having health issues. His communication is difficult to understand, so when he needed to go to the emergency room get admitted to the hospital, Ryan was always willing to take him, stay after his shift ended, and stay with him until the early morning hours to be sure he was settled into his hospital room and the medical team had all their questions answered. Ryan also passed along the most critical fact to ensure the hospitalizations would be a success. This fact is the individual only watches Channel 3. It was always written on the dry-erase board in his hospital room.

After one more serious hospitalization, we were told the individual would pass away. Ryan stayed with him throughout the day and was there when life support was removed. At the time, none of us realized that medical teams could make mistakes, and this individual was not ready to go yet and surprised everyone by pulling through. When the individual woke up, the first call he wanted to make was to Ryan. READ MORE ABOUT RYAN.