Standing from left: Joseph Nyamekah, Elizabeth Rogers, Frank Petruzzelli. Sitting: Stella Perdison and George Gyan. From left, Brittiany McDermott and Adrienne Reddy. After nearly a month of living with three individuals who tested positive, another BCArc home has been cleared from the Board of H [...]
It’s not easy when someone at your workplace tests positive for COVID-19 and your job is to take care of him. Not everyone raises their hand for that. At a BCArc home in Pittsfield, a team of five quickly came swooping in to care and protect the four individuals. Anthony Monterosso, Delroy Leard, Jo [...]
When Maryellen told her two children she was going to work at a group home with individuals who tested positive for COVID-19, they got angry, called her selfish, said that she didn’t put her family first. Pavel lives with his parents. When he told them he would “shelter-in” with individuals who teste [...]
After spending 25 years teaching history, geography, and French at a middle school in West Africa, Fataou Geraldo packed it in and moved to the United States. He left behind a wife and children. The plan was to establish a home in the United States for his family. Once Fataou established a place in M [...]
DeSean Scales is a Steelers fan. When he started as a part-time worker at Berkshire County Arc, he didn’t expect to travel to Pittsburgh—as part of the job—to see his first Steelers home football game. “This was an amazing experience for me,” DeSean said, “but seeing the huge grin on Gerry’s face al [...]
Eileen, left, with Darlene. "The people in this house become your family. I feel like this is my second family.” It has taken Eileen Haggerty many years and a lot of jobs before finding her niche. After raising her two girls, and working 10 years as a home health aide, mostly with the elderly, she [...]
People ask Tannya Romero about her Plan B. She tells them there is no Plan B – the plan is to go to medical school. Spend five minutes with Tannya and it’s hard to doubt her. She’s focused, articulate, and determined. She came to the Berkshires from Ecuador 10 years ago with no English. She learned t [...]
Site Manager Craig, Residential Support Charlie, and Assistant Manager St. James It takes a team to manage a group home. But it takes a committed and passionate team to make that home a supportive, happy place for the individuals who live there. At a home in Richmond, at least 10 staff members wor [...]
Posing in the front yard of her program. Jamie Sigoski intended to go to school to learn sign language, but never did. By chance, while working at Berkshire County Arc, one of the individuals she oversees cannot hear. “So they sent me to an intensive training program to learn to sign,” she said. To [...]
Rachel Nicola made the choice to work with adults over children a few years ago because adults with disabilities, she said, “have been through some tough times over the years, they weren’t always treated so well.” “I connect on a unique level with the adults in my program,” she said. “They put a smil [...]