About Us

North Quabbin Citizen Advocacy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that has been making friendship and practical help matches between people with and without developmental disabilities or mental health issues since 1983.

NQCA Staff

Mission

North Quabbin Citizen Advocacy is an association to develop and support relationships for people who will benefit from guidance, companionship and/or advocacy.

 

Our objective is to provide protection and advocacy for vulnerable people with mental impairments and disorders by fostering one-to-one personal relationships between people living in the North Quabbin Community.

Pictured, left to right: Maryann Sullivan, Office Manager; Jessica Gale-Tanner, Administrative Coordinator and Nate Johnson, Executive Director

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Our Work is Vital

We are being challenged in ways we have not known before.

  • Survival - Work - Family - Home - Food - Safety

  • Where is community with physical distance?

  • We need each other.

  • Communities work best when the web of relationships include us all—the poor, elderly, and disabled side by side with the rich, young, and able-bodied.

  • The informal network of mutually beneficial relationships defines community.

  • Disabled people are often not included.

  • NQCA invites ordinary citizens to reach out and  include our disabled neighbors, and in doing so strengthens the web for us all.

Our Process

  • NQCA recruits and supports unpaid advocates to be helpful friends to disabled people.

  • NQCA, through the relationships it supports, helps disabled people, their advocates, and the entire community as neighborly caring increases.

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Our Impact

  • Through newsletters, presentations, and discussions, NQCA’s work invites others to call forth more neighborly caring in other communities.

  • Lessons from working with hundreds of people in caring relationships serve as a guide to others on the “how to” questions of initiating and supporting freely-given relationships.