UCP uses the whole family approach to services by providing tools to make dreams a reality.

The role of UCP’s Family Support Center is to educate and promote the empowerment of children and adults with disabilities and their families so that they may be better prepared to negotiate life’s challenges while realizing the dreams, lifestyle choices, and full potential of their family members with disabilities. We’re here each step of the way for families — providing a continuum of care at all stages and ages of life with programming for children, adults and seniors. Anyone is welcome to visit and utilize our Family Support Centers located in Pittsfield and North Adams, MA. Our locations are listed at the bottom of this page.

Our People. Our Expertise.

UCP’s Family Support staff have deep experience and knowledge. They offer guidance in areas such as housing assistance, benefit determination, mentoring, educational advocacy and transportation. UCP also offers assistive technology and durable medical equipment evaluations and referrals, for people who may need them, across all of our programming.

OUR TEAM

• Jennifer Summers is our Senior Director of Program Operations: With over 20 year’s experience in human services and education, she oversees programming and training.
• Emily Shoestock is Director of Family Support: She has 10 years of family support experience as an expert community navigator.
• Leslie Kinney has 35 years experience administering disability services and provides consultative assistance.
• William Swann, LISCW has 29 years of experience dealing with mental health and disabilities.

Setting a high-quality standard.

Our approach to quality assurance starts by providing responsive and individually tailored services so that each individual, regardless of disability, is able to pursue a fulfilling, self-determined, high-quality community life — a life without limits. UCP successfully completed the comprehensive family focused accreditation process with the Council on Accreditation. This assures the agency follows the best practices when it comes to the quality of our care.

Community Connections.

UCP has a strong history of developing community connections.  During the current COVID-19 pandemic, UCP has been asked to be part of the community’s emergency response program offering PPE to vulnerable persons and families within our community. COVID-19 is a wake-up call for the world to be digitally connected. UCP is helping the helpers — their agency partners and providers alike to ensure connectivity through technology, which is now a necessity for many populations.

The Centers are open daily: Monday — Friday from 8:30AM to 4:30PM. We are also open for scheduled, weekend and evening activities which include: training, recreational and entertainment events, field trips and fun.

Connection: We maintain connections through mail, email, text, phone calls, Zoom, Skype, FaceTime or Doxy.me, trainings, workshops, social events, conferences and resources.

Transportation: For activities and events, we arrange for transportation as needed including pick-up and drop-off from/to home or a location requested by the family.

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Each month is full of a rich array of opportunities:

• Community events with trips to venues including local parks, rec centers, sports arenas, museums, farms and orchards, colleges and universities, theaters, mini-golf courses, restaurants and planetariums.
• Monthly Drop-In Center, Women’s Group, Men’s Group, Teen Group and Self-Advocacy.
• Free swim at Gladys Allen Brigham Community Center.
• Events including Weekend Respite Opportunities.
• Community Access to the Arts.