THE GUILD FOR HUMAN SERVICES INC

The Guild’s vision is to create the conditions for people with intellectual disabilities to experience the quality of life, including material and emotional well-being, deep interpersonal relationships and social inclusion, personal development, and fulfillment; as well as self-determination, empowerment, and protected rights.

The Guild’s strategies and approach to caring for individuals diagnosed with intellectual disabilities, including autism, and behavioral/mental health challenges focuses on increasing skills to allow for the greatest degree of independence and community inclusion. It is our belief that a positive educational and living experience must balance effectively the development of independent living skills, social skills, vocational skills and academic skills. Therefore, we address these facets in all of our goal setting and programming. Our highly trained and experienced team works closely with each individual to develop their skills in these areas with particular specialization in programming for individuals with complex special needs.

Offering flexibility within structure, our collaborative efforts and tailored curricula are based upon evidence-based and promising practices. The Guild is committed to offering services that are strengths-based, trauma-informed and outcomes-oriented. Through our individualized planning and continuous evaluation of needs, we support an environment that is the least restrictive and most appropriate for each individual served.

Our on-staff therapists, clinicians, educators, health-care professionals and direct-care school and residential staff help students and adults improve their life skills and address complex social, emotional and behavioral needs. At The Guild School, our student services team and residential managers further hone social skills and work to connect students to community experiences. We tailor our supports to each individual's unique needs and preferences, and we honor and value cultural diversity. Most importantly, our approach is grounded within a framework of family and community engagement, and we value parents and guardians as partners.

The Guild's robust programs and services are designed to support our strategic efforts in helping individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to achieve their full potential to lead high quality lives and participate meaningfully in society.

In addition to a spacious special education school, The Guild owns 21 houses comprising our residential program for youth and adults with intellectual disabilities. These family-style homes create environments where individuals are encouraged to take part in the community while experiencing the support of caring, well-trained staff.

With more than 500 dedicated professional, sumbering over 500 strong, The Guild provides a unique community-based approach to all of our care settings. The Guild's staff come from

The Guild’s leadership team is deeply devoted to the youth and adults we serve, a commitment born of professional responsibility, social justice and a personal experience with individuals with special needs.

Critically, The Guild is committed to recruiting and retaining a staff reflective of the racial and ethnic populations we serve. According to a recent filing with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 79% of The Guild’s employees identify as people of color, including a significant group of new immigrants to the United States. More than one-third of the individuals we serve are people of color.

Most recently, as part of our current three-year Strategic Plan, The Guild launched a Diversity Plan affirming our commitment to non-discrimination practices in all aspects of service to individuals and our adherence to equal employment opportunity standards. The plan empowers The Guild to remove barriers to self-determination; promote representative diversity in positions of opportunity and authority; and foster a culture of inclusion through collective leadership.

In the last five years, The Guild has doubled the number of individuals we support through our three programs.

In 2014, at the Commonwealth’s request, The Guild established an adult services program to meet a growing need to support individuals who had reached their 22nd birthday and therefore were ineligible for school services at The Guild or other providers. The program has grown to serve 55 adults in 11 community-based residences around eastern Massachusetts. In an audit, the state’s Department of Developmental Services gave The Guild’s adult services a grade of 99%, the first program to achieve a score that high.

During FY18, The Guild provided services to over 63 residential students, 17 day students, and 55 adults. We also provided training and development courses to special education teachers, direct service providers, and human service professionals. During the next three years, we will be addressing three strategic initiatives: helping students transition from secondary school to adulthood; aiding underserved children internationally; and meeting the needs of our youngest learners.

In addition, The Guild will continue to remain a leader in helping children with autism, mental health, and behavioral challenges. During 2014–2016, the prevalence of children aged 3–17 years in the United States who had ever been diagnosed with a developmental disability increased from 5.76% to 6.99%. The Guild has expanded staffing and programming to teach and care for these youth.