“To improve lives of people with disabilities and their families to have the same opportunities as others without disabilities to live, work, learn, and play in their communities and to change the World defines and views disabilities by making a positive, profound difference in people’s lives each day. To help veterans and the elderly find jobs with the right job training”. Organization Name: The name of the not-for-profit organization is the Goodwill-Easter Seals. The location of the organization: The Goodwill headquarters in Arcadia, Florida.
History of the Organization: “Easter Seals is a nonprofit organization affiliated throughout the United States and Puerto Rico serving people that has disabilities and began in 1934 to raise funds for services that benefit children with disabilities and Easter Seals has 160 local societies and 450 services sites”.
Purpose and population served
The Purpose of Easter Seals is to help as many people as they can. The population that is served are the children, young adolescence, elderly, and veterans of the United States and Puerto Rico.
Programs that they provide are: “Employment and job training for people with disabilities- Across the Country Easter Seals are helping people with disabilities, older workers, and veterans job training and finding jobs that are meaningful in their employment”. Finding their employment passions and lifelong dream jobs and then making into a reality for them is an amazing thing that they do every day. Example: “Cody has a disability and always had a dream to be a firefighter and with the help of Easter Seals and his determination he became a firefighter”.
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“ Very organized ,I enjoyed and Loved every bit of our professional interaction ”
This interests me because Easter Seals has a passion and caring for people and to know that people with disabilities are getting help, they need is heartwarming.
Programs Offered
The programs that are offered is “introducing people with disabilities into society with disabilities and provides many services from physical therapy, child care, education, and camping to name a few but they have many more different services that they provide”. Camping and recreation for people with disabilities- Over 30 camps nationwide that provide activities such as water sports, archery, and horseback riding. Programs that range from “sports, fitness, after school play, Saturday night socials, and community outings”.
Key Staff
President/CEO of Easter Seals Angela F. Williams has over 30 years of leadership experience in nonprofit and corporate sectors and serving as an Executive Vice President at the YMCA is one of the positions that is important because she is responsible for creating, planning and making sure the company runs smoothly and successfully. The second position that is important is David A. Barkus- Holland and Knight LLP a chairman of Easter Seals that organizes and coordinates the board’s actives and reviews and evaluates the performance of the CEO and other board members.
Nature and extent of the problem/need
Veterans, combative personnel, and their families face every day to day challenges that keep them from functioning and fully adapting to the workplace in order to provide for their families and themselves. Goodwill has a program called the “From Deployment to Employment” program that provides support to the veterans, also their families. There are around 20.4 million of military veterans in the United States and half of that population had served in the wars such as the Vietnam, Korean War or World War II and I have family members that served in each war and others that are currently serving. Some had a hard time adjusting to the employment field while others had a very hard times adjusting in the community. The current numbers are declining from the wars listed above, but there are more men and women that are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan that are facing the same issues to adjusting to the employment field and to their communities. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states in 2016, there is currently a “4.3 unemployment rate for veterans and a 4.7 unemployment rate for nonveterans”.
Research on the problem
Our military men and women are returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan “during a time of economic difficulty, the unemployment rates are slowly declining from the year 2015 of 5.0 percent to 3.9 percent in the year 2018”. In addition to the slow declining rates of the percentage of unemployment, there are still soldiers returning that have serious conditions that makes it hard for them to reenter into civilian life. Many things can happen to the veterans that are returning home that include homeliness, family disruption, traumatic brain injuries, physical injuries, and mental disorders and many more that they face while adjusting to their life away from the military.
Studies have shown that the unemployment youth rate rose from 458,000 in 2017 to 567,000 in 2018 and are on a rise . The members who are “separated service members face more difficulty finding their first civilian job within the first two years after departing, when compared to their peers with the same educational attainment and demographic characteristics”, While there are many varieties of support systems that are already available, there is still a great need for new and improved agencies to improve their services to the veterans, combative personnel, and their families, especially in post-deployment (my daughter is married to an army guy that was just deployed and had to come home for services because she didn’t trust anyone at the army base). She came home for moral support from her family and his family because everyone deserves to have some type of support in their lives and therefore it is important to provide more services for the veterans in combat and not in combat.
Impact of the need/problem on people/communities
There are many different factors that contribute to this problem; On the other hand, “military service members, veterans and their families typically face several issues at one time, making it more difficult for veterans to be able to transition back to their home to a daily living including the workplace” . “The many challenges that are among the predominant issues that many of the military members, veterans and their families face are: unemployment, homelessness, mental health problems, substance abuse, physical disabilities, and other unique challenges facing female and male members and their families”.
The economic hardships that many veterans have are employment issues and substance abuse. In a personal one on one interview with my uncle Mike Lobdell that served in the army, “He spent over five years in the U.S. Army as a cook. Several deployments made him face difficult situations including leaving his son and wife behind as he served, but it didn’t prepare him for civilian life and the challenges that he would face later. After returning home to his wife and son it was very hard for him to find a job that abled him to provide for his family and keep a roof over their heads. After losing his wife to a divorce and won custody over his son my uncle Mike turned to alcohol in the beginning but later turned his life around by getting a great job and providing for his son with the help of family and medical providers” (Mike Lobdell, 2019). “The difficulties of managing one or more of issues that can become overwhelming to these veterans including family members and can lose the walls around them” (NCHV, 2018).
Majority of the veterans in the United States successfully adjusted into civilian workforce, there still are others that are struggling and have become homeless and have experienced serious mental health issues “that make it difficult to experience the dignity” and the power of working amongst others in their communities . Around the World including my hometown of Arcadia, Florida our service men and women including their families have experienced long and multiple deployments throughout their careers with the military. As a result, many are living with “physical and psychological scars that will always affect them for the rest of their lives” . The services provided by the “From Deployment to Employment” program will help benefit the members of combat to gain the skills necessary in the society. On the other hand, the idea of this program and its services is justified around the community help vets cope with entering the society as a working citizen.
How your organization can address the problem/need:
For a very long time, Goodwill has worked hard to provide help to people that are faced with employment challenges to earn jobs and the opportunity to pursue a career that they would like. Many Goodwill agencies around the United States from one coast to another coast have committed to invest their resources and expertise in partnering with other stakeholders in order to continue “developing a collaborative network that prepares members of the military to successfully transform back into the civilian lifestyle and workplace” . The key is to support the “veterans and their families who face the challenges during this transition and improve the benefits and supports administered by numerous federal agencies, community organizations and veteran service organizations”.
That means that the funding from the “Deployment to Employment” program around the United States will continue to enhance its mission by providing educational and career development and working skills for these members to gain the proper skills needed to function today. Taking into consideration that the military service members, veterans and their families have suffered from some sort of mental health issue, this program will offer the services of well-trained mental health specialist, such as group counselors and psychologist. These health care specialists can help these members of society understand their concerns better and teach them effective coping strategies to deal with their problems better and healthier, provide emotional support and the tools that are needed to initiate and maintain a better path towards healing and feeling better about themselves as a person of the community. In addition, the staff would be responsible for evaluating the members and develop a plan that will allow them to reach their personal goals and increase their chances of obtaining a career. Our goal is to increase the awareness to all the of the military service members, veterans, and their families in the area of Arcadia, Florida of 45 percent by November 15, 2019.
Discussion of the Budget:
References:
- Easter Seals, (2019). Retrieved from: http://www.easterseals.com/our-programs/military-veterans/
- BLS, (2018). Retrieved from: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/youth.nr0.htm
- BLS, (2018). Retrieved from: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/vet.nr0.htm
- NCSL, (2019). Retrieved from: http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/national-employment-monthly-update.aspx
- NCHV, (2018). Retrieved from: http://nchv.org/
- NCBI, (2015). Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4671760/
- Goodwill (2019). Retrieved from: http://www.goodwill.org/
- American Promise Alliance, (2019). Retrieved from: http://www.americaspromise.org/news/funding-opportunities-205
- Potential grant sources:
- Name: American Promise Alliance
- Website: http://www.americaspromise.org/news/funding-opportunities-205
Goodwill On Easter Seals. (2021, Dec 14). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/goodwill-on-easter-seals/
