Arron Davis, age 36, a young man currently living in New Hampshire who is enjoying a second chance at a good life through comprehensive services from Community Options, Inc., after years of institutional abuse, restraint, electric shock and neglect at a Massachusetts human warehouse facility, celebrates a future free of leg irons and handcuffs.. Courtesy photo

NASHUA – Trussed up like a sack of potatoes confined with leg irons and handcuffs connected with a chain during 2,000 miles of medical transport from an institution in Massachusetts to new and compassionate care in Texas was a human being — Arron Davis, a man with level three autism.

His abrupt stumble onto the tarmac in 2023 was offset with the kindness of a new life. Today, the thriving resident, age 36, is living in a welcoming neighborhood in New Hampshire. He is assisted by personal mentors but enjoys a generous measure of independence over abusive imprisonment elsewhere.

Davis was met at that airport two years ago and welcomed into a life-changing era of respect, care, neighborhood housing and appropriate employment by staffers from Community Options, Inc., based in Princeton, New Jersey.

His rescue from the medieval facility in Massachusetts had been arranged by Community Options, Inc., an enterprise well established in 12 states. The nonprofit offers comprehensive services for around 5,000 individuals with disabilities like cerebral palsy, spina bifida or Down syndrome.

Newly published author Robert Stack, CEO and President, is the leader of the nonprofit Community Options, Inc., whose local headquarters is located in Nashua at 547 Amherst St., Suite 402.

The book that offers an insider's look at the disability industry and offers guidelines to encourage better treatment and dignity for individuals with intellectual or developmental challenges is now available for purchase. Courtesy photo

“I’ve made reforming care for the disabled a big part of my life’s work — a half century later there has been miraculous progress for them and their struggling families, Stack said in person and in the forward of his new book, “Silent No Longer – Advancing the Fight for Disability Rights.”

He shared those words and more from his heart and from his experience of more than 40 years in the disability industry as the featured speaker at a revealing author talk presented on Nov. 15 at Balin Books, 375 Amherst Street in Nashua’s Somerset Plaza.

Stack noted that Community Options personnel support its family of intellectually or physically challenged patrons with dignified living quarters in group homes or single residences, most often in a neighborhood setting. Employment becomes a steady measure of growth matched to an individual’s job training and skill level.

Medical care, lifestyle education and emotional support supplied by professionals within Community Options reinforces each resident’s peace of mind and personal security.

Stack shared that every member of the Community Options family of around 5,000 people in 12 states share a comforting way of life devoid of the fear, abuse, handcuffs, shackles or the neglect prevalent in too many institutions.

Robert Stack, newly published author of "Silent No Longer - Advancing the Fight for Disability Rights," a work by this dedicated advocate of more than 40 years for people with disabilities and leader of Community Options, Inc., displays the book so well received with overwhelming accolades at a recent author talk at Balin Books in Nashua. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

He rings a loud bell of alarm at the cold corporate suits whose bottom line on their financial statements for treatment facilities never ends with the emoji of a smiley face.

Money is an impersonal motivator at odds with common amenities that are not perks but foundation stones of basic human rights and decency for the disabled, noted Stack.

“Tens of thousands of people are still unnecessarily incarcerated in institutions that fail them,” Stack said in his book and to the enraptured audience.

The book is an easy read that shares a dozen calls to action that citizens who care about their fellow human beings or afflicted family members can employ to improve the future for a reported eight million living with documented disabilities.

Stack, long acclaimed by industry peers as a pioneer in implementing a nonprofit alternative to the penny-pinching practice of warehousing the disabled, vows that the guidelines ordinary people can follow to influence improvement in the disability industry can indeed transform the practices of funding agencies, policy makers, care providers and industry regulators.

“People with disabilities deserve better and if all of us work on this everyone’s life becomes better,” said Stack. “Let’s practice empathy and love for others in our lives.”

The new book, “Silent No Longer – Advancing the Fight for Disability Rights,” by Robert Stack, Author and CEO of Community Options, Inc., is available at Balin Books in Somerset Plaza, 375 Amherst St., Nashua.

The groundbreaking new book also can be ordered from Amazon, BenBellaBooks.com and robertstack.org.

More information on Community Options, Inc., “Supporting People with Disabilities since 1989,” can be found online at comop.org.