Awarding good values!
by Bob
We just completed our annual employee awards here at Easter Seals Southeast Wisconsin, and this year we gave four of our 200+ staff members the Living Our Values award.
The Living Our Values award recognizes staff members that go above and beyond in living the values of our affiliate: welcoming, humility, respect and integrity. The award is one I created within the first month I became CEO/President here in Milwaukee, and I was especially moved by the way each one of this year’s four award-winning individuals lives our mission.
One therapist in our early intervention services connected two families together because each had twins with special needs. Her goal was to help them learn from each other and feel less isolated. One of our management team has grown and expanded our workforce services so that in 2012, 17 individuals now are employed in community employment. She was also responsible for expanding our Project SEARCH to a new hospital in 2013. The growth of our job placement has been phenomenal over the last two years. We started with just a handful of success stories in 2010, and now 90 individuals are moving toward community employment.
Another staff member dealt with a family who had been evicted from their home and was living in their car. The children could have been taken from their mother, but this staff member found housing and the family remained together. Another individual started a knitting class at our Workforce Training Center, and the hats, mittens and scarves were donated to a local agency to help those in need.
These staff members represent the creativity, dedication and compassion of Easter Seals staff members across the country. Our awards mark a year in the life of Easter Seals, but the impact of caring staff like these last a lifetime.