Letters from the President & CEO
BCArc’s Range of Services Enrich the Individuals it Supports, and its Staff
This was originally published in Visions, Issue II 2026. Click here to see more issues of Visions.
September 1, 2026
Our success has many components. For one, we are diversified. We offer many services, in an effort to provide rich lives for the people we support.
Our residential services provide beautiful homes and support for many individuals.
As part of this program, our Shared Living services allow individuals to live with families in the community.
Our Day Programs ensure that individuals enjoy a social, learning experience. Similar to this, we have community-based services for a range of ages and abilities.
We offer employment support for anyone who wants to work. More than 50 employers in the region participate, pay market wages, and embrace them in their workforce.
We offer support in the family home through Adult Family Care, with nurse visits, a case manager, and a monthly stipend.
Our Family Support program delivers dozens of activities for individuals to explore new interests, visit new places, and meet friends.
The list goes on. Together these programs and services form a mosaic of offerings. It provides a foundation to pursue new opportunities when they arise.
This breadth of offerings also provides career opportunities for our staff. BCArc offers pathways to advance, or switch career tracks within human services. Hundreds of staff have done this over the years.
What we do now looks very different than how we did it 20, 50, or 70 years ago. It will look very different in 10 years. We plan for change.
We continue to look for new opportunities that align with our core mission. We strive to be innovative. We take chances and try to stay ahead of the curve. As a result of these risks, we now have a suite of programs that benefit a wide range of people.
We look forward to taking on new initiatives that align with our mission. We appreciate our partners who have stayed with us to achieve the mission.
Maryann Hyatt, MBA, DBA
President & CEO
Moving the Agency Forward through Employee Feedback
This was originally published in Visions, Issue I 2026. Click here to see more issues of Visions.
April 1, 2025
The staff at Berkshire County Arc recently offered a snapshot of their feelings about working at this Agency. Collectively, the response has been tremendously positive.
We asked for feedback on workplace culture, benefits, opportunities for advancement, the support they receive, their role in the organization, and more.
An overwhelming number of employees surveyed expressed feeling positive in every area they were asked about – categories widely considered essential to productive and positive work environments.
This survey revealed the success of BCArc as a workplace in every critical category, including our ability to communicate clearly the expectations of a job – a job where vulnerable human beings depend on you to stay safe, healthy, and productive.
We operate in a challenging financial environment. It limits the ways we can reward the great work of staff performance. But despite the financial constraints, the rewards of this work clearly resonate with the staff.
There were also dozens of open comments that offered concrete and insightful views about the organization and ways to improve. Their feedback will generate robust discussion at the board and leadership level. Their general feedback and specific comments reflect an accurate assessment of where we are and where we are going.
As the CEO, I now have clear, articulated direction from the staff on their thoughts, attitudes, and ideas for moving BCArc forward. Working together, we will continue to make this the best place to work. Employees who respect and feel good about their work environment leads to strong service and programs.
While the responses were overwhelmingly positive, our goal remains – that 100% of the employees feel positive about every aspect of this Agency. We will continue to strive for that.
Maryann Hyatt, MBA, DBA
President & CEO
Why An Arc?
This was originally published in Visions, Issue IV 2025. Click here to see more issues of Visions.
December 1, 2025
Since our inception in 1954, Berkshire County Arc has been part of the national Arc network, which includes 18 chapters in Massachusetts, and more than 600 chapters across the country.
These are the people who helped move the disabilities population from institutions to the community. This is the organization who went to the courts to secure the right to a public education for children with disabilities. The Arcs also helped pass the Americans with Disabilities Act legislation.
Much of these accomplishments are now part of our communities. We expect a ramp at the doctor’s office, and assume all children can go to school. But, as a speaker at the recent national Arc conference made clear, there are always forces out there looking to roll back the clock.
Fortunately, no one fights like a parent, another speaker at the conference said. Parents made all this happen in every state, including our Commonwealth. Parents created the Arcs.
Beyond social and legislative advocacy, belonging to the Arcs provides a support system for operating at the highest level. We talk often. We share ideas and resources, we advocate as a group, and we mentor one another.
The directors of the various programs also collaborate, including training departments, human resources, residential programs, marketing, and so on. And while we all operate independently with our own CEOs, Boards, leadership teams, and budgets, we do not compete. In fact, we do the opposite – we are eager to help every chapter succeed.
It wasn’t that long ago when public events – from theater to sports – did not have to accommodate a person with physical challenges, or school districts were allowed to prevent children from an education. This impacts 15% of the population, not to mention their families.
The Arc is a village to change the world, said one person at the recent annual conference. While the BCArc family achieves at an impressive level on its own, it is always better to be part of a larger village.
Maryann Hyatt, MBA, DBA
President & CEO
Staying Loud and Visible in Your Community: Critical for Everyone
This article was originally published in The Provider, a statewide publication by The Providers’ Council, distributed to human services organizations and lawmakers across the state.
November 1, 2025
Every year we take over the town of Dalton for a day. More than 700 of us walk through the main street wearing the same shirts, led by a friendly police escort. It’s a short one-mile walk, but it’s a powerful image of a massive group united around one issue.
Berkshire County Arc’s mission is to support and enrich the lives of people with disabilities. To do that — to do anything in human services — requires the full engagement and embracement of the entire community.
This one-day event — called the Buddy- Walk — is not about raising money. It’s about raising awareness for people with Down Syndrome. The impact reverberates far beyond the energy and excitement of the moment. It helps to counter stereotypes, create accessible environments, remove barriers and recognize our presence in community life.
Bringing people together can do all that.
Legislators walk. The high school cheerleaders walk, as do sports teams, as does their principal. Now in our 19th year, we have the momentum of all corners of the community — grandkids, grandparents, people with no connection to disabilities but feel the importance of support and feel the pride and joy of the event.
These unifying events can seem distracting to the core service of your agency. Afterall, delivering your services at a peak level is hard enough. But awareness, educating the community, shouting about the unknown force and talent and dreams of the disability community — these are worthy goals all by themselves. And they help pave the way toward enhancing the delivery of your programs.
We do other events that may not seem central to our mission, but we think they are. For example, we host a film festival open to the public, for free, with international films, which feature individuals with disabilities.
This event is small. But we continue to produce it, until it also grows into an annual ritual for a critical mass. And perhaps it stays small but achieve other important goals — inspiring and energizing your staff and leadership, influencing the influencers of your community or reminding everyone why we do this work.
The disability community is everywhere — supermarkets, sports events, restaurants — yet they are never seen. As individuals, they and their families can feel invisible.
Berkshire County Arc supports more than 1,000 individuals and their families. We are in the community of the Berkshires and the Pioneer Valley every day. Dozens and dozens of us at the movies, out to eat, planting community gardens, walking through downtowns. For these acts, we are integrated on purpose. We are the community. Despite all this, we know that the most vulnerable populations are everywhere but never seen. This is why they feel invisible.
All of us need to see that community awareness is essential to our work — community by community. It’s not an option if we are to succeed together.
This year there were around 100 Buddy Walks across the country — three in Massachusetts. For our walk, we partner with the local Down Syndrome Family Group, a group of families that pursue events to raise awareness and support their community.
While our Buddy Walk is one day long, the image stays with people for the year, lands on the local front page, and spreads across social media groups that make social media scrollers pause for a second or two before moving on. Yes, it takes this much work to cut through the noise and get some moments of attention. But it is work we have to do .
Maryann Hyatt, MBA, DBA
President & CEO
The Power of Strong Staff
This was originally published in BCArc’s 2025 Annual Report.
September 1, 2025
This year belongs to our staff. Yes, every year does. But this year more than most.
They started new programs, expanded existing services, introduced innovative offerings, and enriched lives with the quality care and support that BCArc has been known for since 1954.
When we can afford it, we pay staff above and beyond their salary (the actual value of their work is priceless to the families they support). This past fiscal year, for example – which ended June 30, 2025 – we paid employees nearly $5 million above their regular pay. Four rounds of bonuses totaled
$8400 above the regular pay for a full-time staff who provide direct care to individuals supported by BCArc. More than half of our workforce received this bonus amount.
People work here for many different reasons. Some come to BCArc knowing that caregiving is their calling. Others come because they need a job, or they need a job with hours that works for their family, or they are in transition. Many –- thousands over the years — stay on for decades because they fall in love with the work and the people they support.
Maintaining a full workforce in the field of human services is historically difficult, particularly in Western Mass. BCArc is no exception.
Ironically, we are at our highest number of staff since our inception 70 years ago – over 850 employees, making us one of the largest employers in the region. We do not take this situation lightly. We know retaining staff is as difficult as recruiting staff. Keeping great employees requires intentional effort — it is not a given that they stay, we need to earn their commitment.
The staff at Berkshire County Arc are a true reflection of the community. We come from all walks of life, to support individuals from all walks of life.
And while the political and financial climate is changing quickly for non-profits like us, as it has many times over the decades, one thing always stays the same –- the relentless dedication of caregivers at Berkshire County Arc.
Maryann Hyatt
President & CEO
Federal Cuts? BCArc Will Still Thrive
This was originally published in Visions, Issue II 2025.
May 1, 2025 –
The future is never certain. This has always been the case for Berkshire County Arc, which has operated with a sound budget for decades through a financially conservative approach and steady growth.
We hear a lot about Medicaid getting cut at the federal level. At a recent legislative breakfast – see page 4 — Berkshire County’s state legislators told the crowd that the state can absorb a large federal cut on the short term, but may not be able to sustain services year after year with significant cuts.
BCArc – like most human service organizations – relies on MassHealth for many of its programs, which is the state’s provider of Medicaid. BCArc is well-positioned for lean times. Our mission will stay the same – enrich the lives of the people we support. We are large, but we can be agile. We are prepared for a change in state funding. We have weathered many storms in 70 years.
We will also continue to stay front and center in Boston with our partners in the Berkshires and our Arc colleagues – 18 Arcs across the Commonwealth.
BCArc is lucky to have the support of its lawmakers throughout the state, and particularly in Western Massachusetts. This is a state that cares about its most vulnerable population. We know they will do their best to fund basic services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and brain injuries. We also know they will face tough choices if Medicaid is reduced significantly.
Meanwhile, we will keep shouting about our most important issues – higher wages for staff who are committed to this work, better transportation services for all of Western Massachusetts, and numerous other related areas that impact the disability community and all of our communities.
Thank you everyone for your interest and support in caring for people with disabilities. When we stick together, we get things accomplished.
Maryann Hyatt
President & CEO