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Considerable interest exists in the strategy of supporting grass roots family governed family support projects that has occurred within the state of Massachusetts. This strategy was developed extensively during the 1990s and continues in the present. This paper describes and analyzes these projects from the viewpoint of the key lessons they offer for how services of any kind might be developed. It should be recognized that the situation in Massachusetts is a dynamic one, and it is quite possible that events may overtake this quite limited portrayal of conditions there. ,This strategy developed initially in the region of western Massachusetts in the form of several pilot projects. It eventually spread quite widely throughout that region and quickly, though not nearly as extensively, took hold in various instances in the other four regions of the state's Department of Mental Retardation. All of what had first begun as pilot projects became permanent ongoing community services.,