About South Shore Support Services
History of South Shore Support Services
South Shore Support Services was incorporated as an agency in April of 1995. We are a non-profit corporation governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. Our Board Members are individuals with disabilities and their family members, and business people from our local communities. They are people who support our mission, represent diverse viewpoints and have a willingness to learn.
In 1995 South Shore Support Services began by providing skills training. We worked as a subcontractor for Cerebral Palsy of Massachusetts and the ARC of the South Shore. Through skills training we served fifteen individuals with two employees.
Our small business expanded into providing supports for the Department of Developmental Services (DMR). We began by providing Family Support through a Department of Education/Department of Developmental Services (DMR) pilot project for one student. We also worked on the Home of One’s Own initiative providing consultation work statewide. We worked with the families of the individuals we supported to identify creative resources that would address their unique needs.
Six months later we began our Home Supports with a woman who was graduating from Crotched Mountain School in New Hampshire. We helped her find an accessible apartment in Quincy, support workers, personal care attendants and a roommate. Today we are still providing services to this amazing young woman.
Our Individual Support and Family Support models evolved from our skills training services. We provide support coordination to individuals who are proud of their independence, but in need of a little extra assistance. Many of the people we serve have had unsuccessful relationships with other provider agencies. We are successful working with them, because we see the person and the abilities first and the disability second.
Our Adult Family Care program began in July of 2007. It allows us to give families who are providing care to their sons or daughters or siblings in their own homes another resource for support. It also allows us to match individuals to trained provider homes in the community.
In July 2010 we opened our Family Support Center and Library at our Libbey Street Office. We are currently serving over 300 families.
In April of 2010 we opened the Jeanne Hamilton Adult Day Health Center in Scituate. The center provides day supports to seniors. Activities are structured to help these individuals maintain good physical and mental health and to give their families respite from care giving responsibilities.
South Shore Support Services has been qualified to provide both individual and group supported employment opportunities. Although we do not currently contract to provide supported employment services, we do support people in their employment initiatives. Individuals, who we work with under other service models, work for the agency providing clerical and cleaning supports. By focusing individually we are be able to facilitate job matches that are sustainable.
We have grown from two employees to almost one hundred employees. In family support we serve over 250 families. In home supports we serve 30 people in various support models. In individual supports we serve 20 people and in adult family care we serve over 70 folks.
Our approach has been and will be one person at a time, and that is how our support services have evolved.