Providing round the clock care
- jstong2
- Jan 13
- 3 min read
Paul Dieken is one of two housing coordinators in Lander for CES
Community Entry Services is one of the best kept secrets in Fremont County - without intending to be. CES serves over 100 adults with disabilities and acquired brain injuries with a staff of over 100 professional caregivers who transport clients from their private homes, or from almost a dozen group residences to our Lander or Riverton day habilitation centers with a small fleet of handicap accessible vehicles... every day is a delicate dance of schedules, staffing and client needs.
One of the 'conductors' of this intricate dance is Paul Dieken, originally from Lander who grew up in Riverton, graduated from Riverton High School (class of 1992) and has a wide resume of professional skills ranging from teaching, security, to management in various fields before coming to CES to serve as a Direct Service Professional and later as our Housing Coordinator.
Paul met many of our clients while managing the local Loaf and Jug store.
"I knew Ebony as a customer before I came to work at CES. I knew she was very capable of making herself understood when she needed to. But many people assume that our clients aren't as intelligent and aware as they are. CES clients do understand what people are saying even if they can't easily verbalize it. The public sometimes assumes they're like children when in fact they're adults and understand a lot of what fellow adults are saying."
Paul Dieken checks in with Lander's Gary Hudson Center regularly. Here meeting with Kristan and Laurie about scheduling. Debbie Story was cheerfully showing her latest creation. Paul encourages some clients to build models with Legos and has his own professional grade model airplanes on display to inspire them.
Paul has worked for CES for over 4 years and loves his role helping coordinate the care and transportation of clients from 3 group homes in Lander to our day program.
Caring for ongoing maintenance, grocery budgets, client scheduling for both those living in our CES group homes as well as those who live in their private homes and need transportation fills up his days.
He also oversees major overhauls of the homes thanks to generous anonymous donors who hear about our needs through the grape vine and step up to help as needed.
"There are some amazing people in Wyoming who heard about our program and the needs of our clients so have stepped up to help directly with construction and renovation costs. They don't want recognition or even a tax receipt. This sort of "out of the blue" generosity is one of the things that inspires me about working for the clients at CES" (Paul Dieken)
Beyond the huge scale of CES, in Fremont County, and how many adults we serve, the other thing the general public probably doesn't appreciate is how we're able to provide this level of care for these folk: it's not entirely funded by State or Federal Medicare that typically reimburses only about 83 cents per dollar of services provided.
We're able to provide the gold level of care largely thanks to the generosity of a lot of unsung heroes who don't want recognition or praise. They just come in like angel investors and donate seemingly without rhyme or reason but almost always at the perfect time to solve some problem, fix some vehicle or renovate some home.
Gratitude for these locals (and not so local) donors is something we strive to let the public know about. Thanks to the generosity of Wyoming people, no one is left behind at CES.
Thanks to the generosity of local individuals and businesses through Festival of Trees, Challenge for Charities, and Dancing with the Stars fundraisers, CES is able to provide 24/7/365 care for over 100 adults with disabilities in Fremont County.
If you want to be an angel investor or drop off a donation to help us with a host of ongoing home renovation, vehicle repair, or medical equipment replacement support, see https://www.ces-usa.org/donate or walk in to our day habilitation center and ask to speak with Ron Grogan about our latest needs.
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