Meeting the Moment: Testimony on Shared Living

For nearly four decades, Executive Vice President of Operations Angela Procopio-Rahilly has worked alongside people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, witnessing firsthand the evolution of disability services in Massachusetts. Since 1998, she and her family have shared their home with Nonotuck Board member Carrie Bona through Shared Living, an experience that has profoundly shaped both her personal and professional understanding of support, relationships, and community. In the following reflection, adapted from public testimony, Angela draws on both perspectives to explore the power of belonging and why the true measure of quality is not simply the services people receive, but the meaningful lives they are empowered to build.

Good afternoon, and thank you for creating this opportunity to listen, learn, and imagine the future together.

My name is Angela Procopio-Rahilly, and I serve as Executive Vice President of Operations at Nonotuck Resource Associates.

But before any of that, I’m a Shared Living provider.

Since 1998, my family and I have shared our lives with the same remarkable woman who chose to make her home with our family. That relationship has been one of the greatest joys and privileges of our lives, and it continues to shape the way I think about support, relationships, and community every single day.

Nearly forty years ago, in 1987, I began my career in human services as a direct support professional in a sheltered workshop, working alongside people with intellectual and developmental disabilities during a time when our field was just beginning to move away from segregated settings and toward community life.

Many of the people I supported did not communicate with spoken language. Some used signs, pictures, communication devices, gestures, or simply their behavior. My job was never to teach them to communicate like me. My job was to learn how to understand them.

That experience taught me something I have carried with me throughout my career.

Every person is communicating.

Every person has strengths.

Every person wants purpose.

Every person wants to belong.

Over the years, I’ve come to believe that the purpose of good disability services is not simply to provide support.

It’s to create the conditions where possibilities can unfold.

Over the years, our field has changed dramatically. We have developed stronger regulations, better training, improved quality systems, and a greater understanding of person-centered practices. Those advances matter.

But perhaps the greatest lesson I’ve learned is this:

People don’t thrive because of services alone.

They thrive because they are known, valued, connected, and given opportunities to contribute.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over nearly forty years, it’s that the people I’ve had the privilege to know have been my greatest teachers.

I’d like to share three lessons they’ve taught me about what good disability services can make possible.

The first lesson is about time.

It’s about two men who have shared a home for more than thirty years.

One of them does not communicate with spoken words. Over three decades of living together, they developed a way of understanding one another that goes beyond words. One day, while visiting a small local airport, one of the men walked over to an airplane and kicked the tire. Instead of dismissing the moment, his housemate paused and wondered,

“I wonder if he wants to fly.”

That simple question led to scenic flights across New England, canoeing, tandem biking, vacations, and countless adventures they discovered together.

Years later, reflecting on their life together, he said that Shared Living had given them one extraordinary gift:

Time together.

Time to understand one another.

Time to build trust.

Time to discover interests.

Time to create a life neither of them could have imagined at the beginning.

I’ve come to believe that time is one of the most overlooked supports we provide.

Relationships cannot be rushed.

Trust cannot be scheduled.

Belonging grows over time.

The second lesson is about belonging.

It’s about a woman who has lived with her Shared Living family for many years.

When asked what she loves most about her life, she talks about bingo nights, shopping, laughing together, and the everyday routines that make a house feel like home.

But what moves me most is something she once said:

“She takes care of me, and I take care of her.”

She spoke about making tea when someone wasn’t feeling well, helping around the house, taking out the trash, and caring for the people who cared for her.

That isn’t simply receiving support.

That’s belonging.

It’s people building a life together.

The third lesson is about contribution.

It’s about a man who learned that children in another part of the world didn’t have access to clean water.

He decided he wanted to help.

With the encouragement of the people around him and the community that knew him well, he raised thousands of dollars to help build wells in Africa.

He’s also known for volunteering in his community, helping neighbors, and always looking for ways to make someone else’s life a little better.

He isn’t defined by the supports he receives.

He’s defined by the difference he makes.

Those three lessons have taught me something.

When we give people time, relationships grow.

When relationships grow, belonging follows.

And when people truly belong, they naturally begin to contribute—to their families, their neighborhoods, and their communities.

At Nonotuck, we support people through Shared Living, Adult Family Care, and community-based services across Massachusetts. We have invested in Positive Behavior Supports, quality improvement, continuous learning, and systems that help us evaluate and improve our work.

Those systems matter.

But they are not the goal.

The goal is helping people build meaningful lives. Good Lives.

One of the things we’ve learned over many years is that quality cannot be reduced to compliance.

Licensure, accreditation, and oversight are essential because they help us examine our work and hold ourselves accountable.

But they do not create quality.

They reveal it.

Real quality is reflected in the everyday lives people are able to live.

Do they have choices?

Do they have meaningful relationships?

Do they experience dignity?

Do they have opportunities to contribute?

Do they feel at home?

Those are the outcomes that matter most.

As Massachusetts continues to think about housing, employment, transportation, health equity, and long-term supports, I hope we continue building on what we have learned.

I hope we continue measuring not only the services people receive, but the lives those services make possible.

I hope we continue investing in the relationships that help people thrive—families, shared living providers, Adult Family Care caregivers, direct support professionals, neighbors, employers, and community members—because relationships are not simply a benefit of good services. They are one of the most important supports we can foster.

And I hope we continue building systems that recognize the value of prevention, stability, and long-term relationships.

We know that stable homes, meaningful relationships, understanding behavior as communication, and strong community connections improve health, reduce crises, and strengthen communities. Our funding and quality systems should recognize and encourage those outcomes.

At Nonotuck, our mission is to link with communities to create conditions for inclusion and social change.

I’ve come to believe those words more deeply every year.

Organizations don’t create belonging.

People do.

Our role is to create the conditions where belonging can grow.

As we continue to improve disability services in Massachusetts, I hope we continue asking ourselves one simple question:

Are we building systems that simply deliver services, or are we building systems that create the conditions where people can build meaningful lives and experience true belonging?

Because services matter.

But relationships change lives.

When we create the conditions for relationships to grow, belonging follows. And when people truly belong, they find opportunities to contribute—to their families, their neighborhoods, and their communities.

I believe that’s the future we’re all working toward.

Thank you.