Intensive Residential Services - Stories

Helping people face challenges and find possibilities for more than 25 years

Lena Green
“I help staff to do the very best they can to help individuals learn how to get to their own individual goals.”

Lena Green joined our staff 14 years ago as a direct care provider, working one-on-one with persons needing services 24 hours a day in our Intensive Residential Supports division.Of those early years the former preschool teacher recalls, “I loved it!I really enjoyed making a difference for them and seeing them learn.But I also learned a lot from them, how each person really is an individual with their own personality.”

Today Ms. Green has different responsibilities as the manager of our Parker Street residence.New people continue to join our organization as direct care providers, and part of her responsibility is training them.“I try and help them see the same things I saw, that these are people who need us to do the very best we can to help them learn how to get to their own individual goals.”

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Ethel Everett

Ethel Everett’s mother had been trying for years to move Ethel’s adult sister, Sandra, who is living with a variety of developmental disabilities, out of the Illinois institution where she had lived since age seven, to Massachusetts.

“When we first moved to Massachusetts, Sandra didn’t interact well with people,” Ethel recalls.“She was afraid someone would take her food, so she’d hurry to eat it.”

Upon Sandra’s arrival here over 15 years ago, The Association began a lifelong commitment to helping Sandra feel more at ease among others and deal with the numerous challenges she faced.She now shares a home with several other women in Springfield and has a life which is truly hers.

A few years ago, The Association made possible a reunion between Sandra and her grandfather in Mississippi shortly before his passing.Ethel says, “She lit up and knew exactly who he was.”

“The Association worked with her on socialization.She’s more outgoing and she loves to be around kids.She’s walking and eating better.She’s come a long way!And it’s a relief for me to know my sister’s in a good place and has a good life.”

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