How do you even find good staff?

Without giving too many details, I have worked with a non profit for years as a volunteer. Helping set up and run fundraisers and plan outinga and activities for our clients. It was mostly front of the house work.

Recently, I have taken a more hands on role as a DSP because of some serious staffing issues they have run into. The more I am digging into the trenches the more I realize just how terrible most of these staff members are. No structure, no routine, not following behavioral plans, not documenting, poor med passing, poor nutritional support. They use this job as a way to get a paid nap, or play on their phones and some have even gone so far as to physically assault the clients.

When I did DSP training, more than half the class was kicked out on the first day. Between being high, sleeping through orientation, or playing with their phones I saw the nurses remove 4 OF THE 6, people in training.

The office team is fantastic and does the work, but middle managers and lower are almost all, for lack of a better word, worthless.

One of the reasons the organization is so short staffed is because the new Executive Team has went through and terminated almost everyone who is not up to standard but it's almost like they had to keep the best of the worst because if they cut away all the rot there wouldn't even be enough staff to keep the clients cared for at all.

Now things are stuck in a situation where the bad staff that is left is running away the few good potential staff that may come in and more and more new applicants seem to be lazy, unprofessional, or just downright criminal. I think the worst part is that I am located in the Midwest and the DSP pay is equivalent to the standard wage as agencies in New York, they pay for Uber's to get people to work, etc. They fo what they can to go above and beyond to help support a staff that is deadset on being a huge step below even mediocrity.

The Executive team has even taken on the responsibility, today I helped the Executive Director change and bathe a client.

I guess I might just be venting, but how do we get to the light at the end of the tunnel? How do we find qualified people? Frankly, there are days where I feel the best bet is to just shut down the agency altogether because the rot runs so deep and wide. I try to do what I can but I work a 40 - 60 hour work week already, and while the extra 20-30 hours a week might slowly kill me, these clients are some of the kindest people I know, and the disservice being done to them is a travesty that cannot be allowed to continue.