What's Happening - Seven Hills Foundation

Introducing This Weeks Seven Hills Champion: Kimberly Guy, Agency with Choice: Seven Hills Family Services

Written by Peter Demko | Feb 16, 2022 9:15:49 PM

Kimberly Guy began her Seven Hills’ career with the Agency with Choice program at Seven Hills Family Services in 2016. Agency with Choice supports adults with disabilities to pursue their vision in life by managing service funding, through MA Department of Developmental Services, in a self-directed way. From 2016 to March 2020, Kim scheduled her workday according to the needs of the participants—from various community-based activities and medical appointments to routines conducted in the homes. This all changed with the sudden surge of COVID-19, and Kim needed to quickly formulate her Plan B. Like so many other staff in the health and human services sector, Kim shifted her creativity into high gear to balance the various restrictions with the well-being of her participants. Despite periods of isolation and quarantine, Kim always found a way for her participants to feel connected and engaged. She assembled activity packets that she would drop off at their residences. She held cooking classes through Zoom. When the weather—and the pandemic—became a little milder, Kim collaborated with a client’s mom to schedule “Town Visit” adventures. With the windows down and passengers socially distanced, they would travel to a town in Massachusetts and take a self-guided tour of its main thoroughfare as well as historical and unique landmarks. To date, the Town Visitors have “investigated” nearly a dozen towns, with only a couple hundred more to go! A perpetually positive person, Kim and her contagious sense of humor have buoyed the spirits of her fellow staff, her participants, and their most appreciative families to earn her rock-star status in a sector that has been rocked to its core yet stands strong as the stabilizing force in the lives of so many in need.