Nonotuck’s Values and Positive Behavior Supports

At Nonotuck, we believe in living our values—not just talking about them. Since our founding in 1972, when four parents said “no” to institutions and “yes” to community, belonging, and respect, we have been guided by principles of dignity, authentic relationships, and mutual respect. Positive Behavior Supports (PBS)—a framework recently enacted by the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (DDS)—deepens and formalizes what we have always practiced.

Closely aligned with Nonotuck’s values, PBS offers an approach through which exploration, understanding, and action can occur, allowing people to pursue personal interests, experience reciprocity in meaningful relationships, and exercise choice and belonging. By centering the person as the guide of their decisions and experiences, and with the support of their team, PBS helps create a foundation where quality of life, relationships, and opportunities naturally grow. As these areas flourish, behavior—a form of communication—often shifts in more positive and personally fulfilling ways.

At its foundation are four interconnected components:

• Outcomes: measurable improvements in a person’s quality of life.
• Systems: leadership, training, and organizational consistency that sustain support.
• Data: ongoing information to guide decisions and improve practice.
• Practices: the real-world strategies that build skills and expand choice.

Each of these pillars directly reflects Nonotuck’s Key Agency Principles. Outcomes echo our commitment to authentic homes and lives rooted in dignity. Systems reinforce our pledge to provide continuity, stability, and consistency. Data aligns with our responsibility to operate in an accountable and self-critical manner. And practices embody our promise to safeguard rights and nurture meaningful relationships.

PBS at Nonotuck reflects a commitment to empowerment and dignity. Support teams, together with the people receiving support and their caregivers, focus on shaping supports that allow people to make their own informed choices. In practice, this can look like encouraging someone to explore new interests that spark joy, providing guidance around safety while still honoring autonomy and choice as guiding principles, or reimagining supports to promote independence and reduce stressors. These person-centered and relationship-led approaches nurture confidence, stability, and meaningful growth—expanding opportunities for connection, strengthening relationships, and creating more space for joy.

The values embraced by PBS are not new to Nonotuck. It affirms what we have always known: that people flourish through authentic relationships, family respect, and community participation. In the late 1980s, when George H. Fleischner became CEO, he helped lead our transition from group homes to shared living, guided by the belief that people are not “clients and staff,” but companions living full, interdependent lives. PBS builds on that vision, ensuring every person has the support they need in the way that is right for them.

Our current PBS pilots in Harvard, Lee, and Plymouth—and more to follow—are a natural extension of Nonotuck’s Wellness Initiative, which emphasizes Healthy Body, Peaceful Mind, Joyful Heart, and Action. Just as wellness is an evolving journey of dignity and self-discovery, PBS honors each person’s right to define their own path while providing proactive, person-centered support.

This commitment extends to our staff as well. We believe that to provide excellent care, we must also care for ourselves. PBS encourages us to ask: How can our own well-being strengthen our ability to support others? How can we create systems that reflect the same love and respect we ask staff to model in their daily work?

“Positive Behavioral Supports reflects exactly what Nonotuck has always stood for: dignity, choice, authentic relationships, and respect. For us, PBS is a language for what we’ve practiced for decades,” says Nonotuck CEO/President George H. Fleischner. “It deepens our commitment to creating environments where people are not managed or restricted, but supported to thrive in the ways that matter most to them.”

PBS isn’t just a set of strategies—it is a philosophy rooted in dignity, choice, inclusion, and empowerment. By embracing PBS, Nonotuck reaffirms its founding vision: that every person deserves a life of belonging, respect, and love.