On a recent evening, Junior Paris, a manager at the Concord-based Guild for Human Services asked a resident of one of the organization’s group homes if he had ever tasted a deep fried dough ball, popular in West Africa.
“Did you try the puff puff?” Paris, who is from Haiti, asked the resident who is disabled.
“They’re delicious, they’re sweet,” Jason Flax responded.
The two men were attending the guild’s annual pre-Thansgiving potluck — an event that brings together some 70 staff, many of them immigrants, with about 70 residents with intellectual and development disabilities.
The event at the American Legion’s building in Waltham featured African music and a mixture of flavors including turkey and cranberry sauce, chapati bread, sweet plantains and jollof rice. The guild has both a school and residential programs for kids and adults, and its staff come from places like Ivory Coast, Uganda, Liberia, Congo, South Africa and Peru; many of them cooked the food themselves. Mustapha Abdulai, the associate director of the guild’s residential services, who is originally from Ghana, said he finds joy working at the guild.
“I call it home,” he said. “I call it our little village, a small family.”
Usually, the annual pre-Thanksgiving potluck is a celebration of the deep connections that staff and residents make at the guild’s school and group homes around the Boston area. But this year, amid growing deportations and anti-immigrant actions, it’s also a reminder to workers and families or people with disabilities about the fragility of those connections.
Across Massachusetts, children and adults with disabilities rely on direct care workers: more than 26% of these workers are immigrants, according to The Arc of Massachusetts, a nonprofit advocacy agency that supports people with autism and intellectual disabilities.
CEO Maura Sullivan, who has two sons with autism, said the workers are a “lifeline” to people with disabilities and their families. “They’re critical members of our community,” she said. “They provide care all the way from really getting people out of bed every day … to supporting them to get to employment opportunities and day-to-day supports for activities of daily living, and to be a companion and someone who they can trust and bond with.”
Abdulai said many members of their staff are fearful for their futures. “The uncertainties around what the scope of what administration [is doing], how they’re handling all of these things … it’s become more difficult,” he said.
The guild has hosted this Thanksgiving potluck since 2014, and residents say it’s especially important after the pandemic. It offers the residents and staff, who come from seven different group homes around the Boston area, the chance to see each other.
“The staff here at the guild are very very honest and they’re very very very compassionate to what they do,” said Ryan, a 32-year-old resident whose guardian requested GBH News withhold his last name to protect his privacy. “It was a hard time, COVID was the killer of a lot of things. We couldn’t see each other, all of us. We couldn’t be in the room together.”
On this November evening, residents and workers mainly were there to enjoy each other — and be thankful.
“You’re looking at food from East Africa, you’re looking at food from West Africa, food from South America,” said Abdulai. “We have staff from about 45 countries, so that’s how much diversity that gets celebrated.”
The staff say they share a special bond with residents that crosses cultures. Paris, the residential manager originally from Haiti, has worked at the Guild for 20 years. During that time he said he has enjoyed a chance “to make a difference in everyone’s lives.”
Gina Germeil was serving food during the celebration, including plantains, puff puffs and turkey legs. Germeil is a residential manager at a group home in Burlington, where she has worked with some of the residents for 11 years. At the end of the night, she joined the residents on the dance floor for karaoke.
For her, the celebration was a reminder of why she enjoys her work.
“[Seeing] a smile on their face,” she said. “I just love … [giving] them a warm house and making them comfortable and living a meaningful life.”
