Want to celebrate a special team member who lives out our values?
Submit a Kudos Card!

How to submit a Kudos Card:

1. Click on the Kudos card below that you would like to submit. 

2. Fill out the employee's name who you want to send the Kudos Card to, their job title and description (if you know it), your first and last name, and a message telling the employee why they deserve Kudos.

3. Save the file and send it in an email to strongertogether@esmw.org. We'll forward the Kudos Card on to the employee. 

Each month, winners are selected from the submitted cards to receive Easterseals swag and gift cards. Winners are chosen by the Stronger Together Committee and announced each month in our Stronger Together newsletter. The information on winning Kudos Cards may be shared throughout the organization or highlighted on social media.

 EM·POW·ER

(verb) give someone the authority or power to do something; make someone stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights.

We’ve all dreamed of the day when we get to move out onto our own. We dream of the freedom and independence it brings - making your own decisions, running your own home, and doing things your way. But for many people with developmental disabilities, this dream can seem out of reach. Easterseals’ new Technology Enabled Support could change that.

“Technology Enabled Support is a new service line that the Department of Mental Health is putting out in which we utilize technology in a way to give our individuals more independence and take staff out [of their homes],” Jhrvonte’ Minnifield, Director of Community Living with Easterseals Midwest, said. “So we’re really empowering our individuals to be in control of their life.”

Mike is a 43-year-old living in a home with a roommate who also has developmental disabilities. The home has Direct Support Professionals present to help them with things like cooking, cleaning, and medicine administration. But Mike wants more.

“The technology is important to me because one day I hope to move out on my own,” he said.

This made Mike and his roommate the perfect candidates for Easterseals’ Technology Enabled Support, a series of technologies that are equipped to someone’s home to help assist them virtually. Mike was quickly identified as the perfect candidate to start the program on a trial basis.

Before the program, Mike had staff in his home to assist him 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Staff even stayed in the home with him overnight, to ensure he had everything he needed. 

With Technology Enabled Support, Mike now only has staff in his home during the day when he isn’t at work.

“[This technology] allows individuals to still be monitored and have the security and peace of mind that their needs are being taken care of even from afar,” Cody Martin, Community Living Supervisor with Easterseals, said. 

Currently, Mike’s home is equipped with a tablet that he can call Easterseals’ staff on anytime, day or night, and be directly connected to someone to speak to. There are door sensors to be able to keep track of who comes in and out of the home; bed sensors in case Mike were to fall out of bed or need assistance; an e-reader that scans and reads text aloud; and an “Angel Sensor.” The Angel Sensor is a device Mike wears around his neck that he can push and speak to a staff member anytime, anywhere. 

“Normal is an abstract term, but we all have our ideas of what it is to be independent and [people with disabilities] look to people out in the community – they want that level of independence too,” Martin said. “That is what we’re hoping to achieve, just getting them that much closer to what they deserve.” 

There are currently four people utilizing this technology with Easterseals, and more planned for the future. With this technology in place, people with disabilities are that much closer to 100 percent equity, inclusion, and access.

We empower each other through trust, collaboration,
and accountability.

AD·VO·CATE

(verb) to support an idea, need, person, or group; to fight for something or someone, especially the rights of others.

Advocacy is a core part of what Easterseals does. Whether it is advocating for the people we support, our essential staff, or the disability community as a whole. But we don’t just advocate for people, we empower them to become advocates for themselves and for others. 

On March 1, 2023, the Kansas City Individual Engagement Committee (IEC), a committee made up of people with disabilities supported by Easterseals, traveled to Jefferson City to participate in Disability Rights Legislative Day. The committee is part of Easterseals’ core belief that the people we support should have a voice in the programs we provide and how our organization is run. 

“You know being here today is just an amazing opportunity to give to the individuals we support,” Abbie Whitney, Director of Community Services, said. ”It allows them to see advocacy in action, for them to be their own advocate rather than being advocated for, and just allowing them to see that their voice matters.”

Easterseals’ IEC members spent their day advocating for numerous initiatives, including their right to work, voting rights and accessibility, and essential funding for the people who support them every day, Easterseals’ staff.

“I want to help people with disabilities, of course, but I really want to help the staff out,” AJ Olivarez, a member of the IEC, said. 

The day included government speakers, rallies, and an inside look at the Capital. 

“You matter, because the unique differences that we all have make us better – make us better as a state, make us better as a society, make us better as a people,” Missouri State Senator Lincoln Hough told the crowd. “And the more that we remember that the more we will trust that those differences actually make us stronger, the better off we will all be.”

This legislative day was just one of the many ways Easterseals is advocating for and with the people we support. 

“It's been really powerful and empowering to see,” Whitney said.

We advocate for the livelihoods of the people we support, our team, and our community.

IN·NO·VATE

(verb) make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods and ideas; to do something in a new way.

Growing up, we all dream of what we will one day become. That dream usually has something to do with the type of job we’ll have. Whether we want to teach, design airplanes, help other people, or land on the moon, our jobs are essential to who we want to be and who we are. But for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, a job is something that they’re told is out of reach.

At Easterseals, we know that a career is integral to independence. Not only to have the autonomy to find a career you truly love but to have financial freedom and become self-sustaining. That’s why we utilize innovative technology to foster career exploration, teach job skills, and empower the people we support to find a career. One such technology is Virtual Reality headsets that allow participants to experience different career options, carrying out job duties in a virtual setting.

“One of the things that we’ve just recently started is a program that utilizes virtual reality to assist people in their career exploration, also to develop and hone skills that they have that will help them in the workplace,” Tec Chapman, Chief Program Office of Easterseals, said. “When we think about this, one of our core and strategic initiatives is looking at enhancing access and opportunity for people in employment, and what that requires oftentimes is innovation because we have to be creative in new ways for people to explore things that have never been…”

 The VR program allows participants to partake in job tasks for various positions across numerous industries, helping them discover which areas they may be interested in pursuing while honing job-related skills.

“The VR program is designed to have both career exploration and training opportunities in a  variety of industries that may be more difficult for the people we serve to get into - a lot of machining, manufacturing, a lot of those types of roles, which due to liability, safety, etc., we’re not always able to get folks into those places to volunteer, intern, or even just observe and see if that would be a career of interest,” Lindsey Watson said. “So the headset is designed so that someone can wear it, use a module to both see that in action, as well as actually provide training and how to complete the different steps for these various trade industries.”

Studies show that individualizing, rehearsing, and repeating scenarios in virtual reality help people with autism and other intellectual and developmental disabilities generalize social skills and apply them to the real world. This helps teach the job-related and social skills necessary to succeed in the workforce.

The entire program is designed to connect more people to jobs they love, helping them to become independent, engaged members of their communities. A staggering 78% of people with a disability in the U.S. are unemployed - double the percentage of people without a disability. People with disabilities have the skills, talents, and drive to join the workforce.

“These students that we work with often are put in a box by society, by parents, by other providers, and are told that they are only going to be able to do ‘X.’” Watson said. “By using the VR headset and the programming that it offers, they get to see that there [are] so many more opportunities for them and not only [are] there opportunities, but they get to practice and participate in the different jobs and walk away saying, ‘I think I could do that.’”

We innovate disability programs and services to meet
the needs of our community.

CON·NECT

(verb) to join together, link, or unite as one.

For many families, traditions can be some of the most important things they pass on to their children. For the members of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee, the parade is one of these traditions. It is something passed down over many years, and it’s a way to feel connected to the grandparents and great-grandparents who were part of establishing the parade in St. Louis by keeping it going year after year. Teah Griffin and Meghan Minden both felt a strong connection to the parade, Meghan through the generations of her family and Teah, through her husband’s family. 

Being able to participate in the parade is important to both women, so when Meghan’s friend on the parade committee attended every year but did not bring her children to the parade itself, she wanted to know what could be done. One of her friend's children is on the autism spectrum, meaning the noises and stimulus of the parade were too overwhelming for him to attend. Meghan decided to reach out to Teah, as she was another mom on the committee with young children to see what could be done, and learned that Teah had a friend in a similar situation. Teah’s husband’s best friend, Parade Director Kevin Udina, had a wife and child who missed out on the parade every year, which was causing concern for her. Kevin’s son has special needs that include sensitivity to sensory overstimulation as well. The two agreed that the issue needed to be addressed so that everyone could attend the parade. 

However, first they had to determine how to solve the issue, something neither of them felt confident in, so they reached out to Jenny Crowe, whose daughter receives services from Easterseals Midwest’s autism services program. Jenny agreed that making a space that would be a more sensory friendly parade viewing was something that was needed, and the three reached out to Easterseals to make that concept a reality. 

At the start of the project, the support was limited to committee members who had loved ones or friends with disabilities. Despite many committee members being unfamiliar with sensory-friendly areas, they were open to hearing about the impact an inclusive space could provide. Teah, Meghan, and Jenny were dedicated to this project and persistent in convincing the committee that the event could only survive if it was inclusive to all.  The efforts were rewarded when the committee not only granted this project more funds than expected but also became more aware of the need for inclusion in our community.

“It’s such a gift that we can give everyone…Friends that become family. If we can show the community what we do as a committee, it ensures the longevity. This is part of that…We care that everyone can be there,” Teah said. 

By building this space, not only have these women shown a passion for inclusion and the parade’s commitment to providing an event for the entire community, but they’ve also ensured that more people can keep the traditions that mean so much to their families alive. While the inclusive viewing space was only open to committee members’ family and friends in order as proof of concept, next year, it will be open to the public, making the event more meaningful to the St. Louis community.

We connect to our community and each other by embracing
an inclusive and diverse culture.

At Easterseals Midwest,

We empower each other through trust, collaboration, and accountability.

We connect to our community and each other by embracing an inclusive and diverse culture.

We innovate our programs and services to meet the needs of our community.

We advocate for, and with, the people we support, our team, and our community.

We are certain that living out our values
every day will change the world.

A PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

Almost six year’s ago, we created the 2020 Strategic Plan. This guide was created for and by you - our donors, staff, people we support, Board of Directors, and community partners - to lead us into the future of our organization. That plan strengthened the areas we excelled and addressed where we needed improvements. And while we’ve reached the end of that road, our journey is not over.

Using the feedback of our stakeholders and in collaboration with a leading strategy firm specializing in our work here at Easterseals, we’ve developed a Strategic Plan to guide us through 2027.

Like the 2020 Strategic Plan, this plan is guided by our core values to empower each other; connect our community, innovate our programs, and advocate for and with the people we support, this plan is leading us onward together to an even brighter, better Easterseals.

We encourage you to read the plan in its entirety so that you can see where we, as an organization, are going together.

We will also be updating you quarterly on where we’re at. We know that making these promises is one thing, but keeping them is another. We want to overcome any obstacles we may face together, celebrate our victories as a team, and step into the future as one united organization.

Oh, the places we’re going - together.