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EMARC has been providing supports to people living in the community for decades, and in recent years the program has expanded to include 26 individuals living in 18 different independent living settings in Reading, North Reading, Wakefield, Lynnfield and Saugus. Supported Living has an administrative Program Director, 2 supervising Program Coordinators and 24 direct care Mentors who work closely with the families, DDS and other service providers to ensure that the most appropriate supports are provided to each individual.
The Supported Living Program is designed to meet the needs of individuals who have demonstrated the ability to be unsupervised for extended periods of time. Before we begin working with an individual, Program Coordinators will assess skills and abilities in the following areas:
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Home Safety (general) Emergency Skills (fire safety, basic first aid, etc.)
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Kitchen Safety
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Community Safety
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Cooking Skills
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Financial and Budgeting Skills
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Functional Assessment (for baseline)
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Health Assessment
Typically, the individuals that we support in this program require less than 15 hours of support weekly, but some individuals do receive more. Each individual and their family work with their assigned Program Coordinator to develop a Mentor Support Plan, which outlines the different skill-building activities that will be worked on each day a Mentor is present.
Our goal is to maximize the level of independence for the individuals we work with by providing support in a number of different skill-building ways:
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Meal planning and preparation
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Budgeting and Spending Wisely
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Grocery Shopping for a Healthy Life and a Healthy Wallet
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House work and general cleaning
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Traveling Safely
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Planning social and recreational activities
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Physical activities and exercise
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Scheduling and keeping medical appointments
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Computer skills
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Building and utilizing social skills
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Home Safety skills building
We believe that communication is the key to providing the most appropriate and individualized supports. Program Coordinators are in regular contact with family members, individuals and the Mentors assigned to provide direct supports. The Program Director and the Program Coordinators meet on a regular basis to discuss any issues that may arise, and the Mentors meet as a group with the Program Coordinators every 1-2 months. The individuals in the Supported Living program also have access to 24-hour on-call support for emergencies.
We believe that recreation and social networking are an important part of a balanced life. Because of this belief, we have hired a recreational consultant to work with our Supported Living Team to develop and implement opportunities that encourage an active participation in the community, such as:
Individuals in the Supported Living Program also have access to EMARC's Recreation Department with activities such as:
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Weekend away trips
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Art classes
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Sporting events
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Dinner Theater Club
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Social Club
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Card Night
We provide a number of different social/recreational and skill based activities for our individual’s to participate in. On Monday nights, we hold a step-by-step cooking class, which is run by a small group of Mentors. With the help of the Mentors, the class decides what they would like to prepare the following week. The Mentors then develop a recipe to use in the class. Not only are our individuals able to practice making healthy meal choices and learn how to prepare simple recipe’s, it is also a great social opportunity for them. It allows them to spend some time with their friends while enjoying a delicious healthy meal that they worked to prepare! We also have a bowling night on Wednesday night’s that a lot of our individuals participate in and enjoy!
As the Supported Living Program continues to grow, we as a team look forward to continuing to develop innovated and pro-active ways to support those individuals who live independently in the community to achieve their goals.
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