Check out these new impact videos from Wisconsin

by Bob Glowacki

Let’s talk impact. And no, I’m not talking about asteroids striking the earth or some other cosmic fear like that. I’m talking about Easter Seals impact.

Our team at Easter Seals Southeast Wisconsin recently read The End of Fundraising by Jason Saul. The premise of the book is that non-profits need to understand what impact their services have on the community, beyond just numbers served or social good. We reviewed the literature to establish what impact our services have on Southeast Wisconsin. What we learned is with the right services and supports we improve not just the life of one individual, but their family and local employers. We impact taxpayers, too: as an individual’s independence grows, their need of public support decreases.

So far this blog post has the impact of making you sleepy, so allow me to debut our two impact videos. One video is about autism services, and the other video is about adult day services. Each one features people who are directly touched by our services and their families while also recognizing the impact we make at the community level. I hope you enjoy watching them as much as we enjoyed putting them together. In other words, I hope they make an impact!

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month

by Beth Finke

Our nation has recognized the contributions of workers with disabilities since 1945, first as a single honorary week in October and then, beginning in 1988, the entire month of October. The theme for National Disability Employment Awareness Month this year is “Because We Are EQUAL to the Task,” and the U.S. Department of Labor has developed a resource toolbox and other information on its National Disability Employment Awareness Month web page to help promote employment of Americans with disabilities.

In his official presidential proclamation, President Obama urged all Americans “to embrace the talents and skills that individuals with disabilities bring to our workplaces and communities and to promote the right to equal employment opportunity for all people,” and in a recent blog post about leadership, COL David Sutherland used a quote from another famous American that I think is also fitting for National Disability Employment Awareness Month:

General George Patton once said, “Don’t tell someone how to do it, tell them what to do and they’ll surprise you.”

As COL Sutherland said in his post, follow General Patton’s advice and you’ll have workers who are both competent and confident.

Fido, can I see an ID, please?

by Beth Finke

Whitney's Seeing Eye dog identification card

Last month my Seeing Eye dog Whitney was carded in the lobby of the Chicago high-rise where my doctor’s office is. Every human who walks in that building is required to show an ID card, but this is the first time they’ve asked for an ID to prove that the superbly-trained three-year-old Golden Retriever/Labrador Cross who guides me through a revolving door, into their lobby, around their desk and onto the elevator is legit.

Donna Smith, director of training for Easter Seals Project Action explained the regulations for service dogs in a post we published last February called Following the rules for service animals. She shared some of her personal experiences using a guide dog and pointed out that there is currently no national or universal certification process for trained service animals. It is not illegal for a person to ask for an ID card for a service dog, but a person using a service dog cannot be required to show any kind of certification or identification in order to have a service dog accompany them. Donna said this is one of the most misunderstood pieces of ADA regulation about service animals. The ADA allows business owners and the like to ask two, and only two, things when questioning whether a service dog is legit or not:

• whether the animal is, in fact, a service animal, and
• what tasks the animal is trained to perform.

Donna and her Seeing Eye dog Farlow

The building’s security guard didn’t know that, though. He told me they’d all been told to ask for certification when anyone comes into the building claiming the dog at their side is a service dog. “A lot of them fake it,” the guard said with a shrug. I wasn’t surprised. Let’s face it. It’s not hard to tie a vest on a dog, and it’s pretty easy to get fake certification for a dog as well. It’s not easy to live with a significant disability, however, and faking that you have one is an insult to everyone who really needs their dog, and to the airlines, hotels, restaurants and stores who are trying to do what’s right.

The Seeing Eye gives graduates like Donna Smith and me an ID card for our dogs, and while I do carry Whitney’s card with me, I’ve never had to use it before last month. It wasn’t much trouble to fetch Whitney’s ID out of my wallet, so I didn’t put up a fit or try educating the security guard about ADA legislation. I just showed the card, commanded Whitney to lead me forward, and proceeded to the elevator. I’m just sorry that fakers have brought us to the point where the managers at the building require security guards to ask for something they shouldn’t have to bother with.

When Vets Come Home

by Rachel Talen

I would like to introduce our new Marketing & Corporate Relations intern, Mary. Mary is a senior at Calvin College, where she is studying Strategic Communication.

Vets: We need your skills
by Mary Van Poolen

Easter Seals recently released our “Welcome Home” video which shares our mission of serving veterans and their families with Hollywood. Some of my favorite actors and actresses such as Don Cheadle, Hannah Simone, Hayden Panettiere, Fred Armisen, and Mindy Kaling show their support in the video by welcoming home our military veterans.

As the new Marketing and Corporate Relations intern, I am honored to be a part of such an exciting partnership.

In light of Easter Seals’ newly released video, I had the opportunity to sit down with recent war veteran and employee at Easter Seals headquarters, Christopher Dillon, to hear about and share with you what his own welcome home experience was like after serving in Iraq. Many do not realize that war veterans live and work right in the backyard of Easter Seals headquarters.

Chris grew up in Hayward, WI and lived there his entire life. He decided to join the U.S army in order to support his country and see the world outside of the small town. I asked Chris how the friendships he made in the army were different than his friendships back home. He mentioned that he made close friends and still remains in contact with most of them.

“Friendship in the military takes it a step further than in the civilian world. Your life depends on them and their life depends on you. You’ve experienced a lot of stressful situations together…it’s tighter…it’s closer,” says Chris reflecting on his service.

While in Iraq, Chris served as a combat engineer in Ramadi, Habbaniya and Fallujah.

On July 3, 2003 at 6:45 am Chris’ convoy was struck by a roadside bomb causing injuries that forced him to take a Medevac, an emergency removal flight, back to the United States. I can only imagine what that morning must have been like. There weren’t that many people at his welcome home because he was sent back on a Medevac to Germany and then to Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, CO, and was taken to a hospital at Fort Carson. Once at Fort Carson he was “attacked” by his two daughters whom he hadn’t seen in over 4 months. “Pretty much what I wanted…I wanted my daughters there,” he says.

After returning home he pays much more attention to detail because of how routine it was for him to check for grenades, wires and roadside bombs. It was difficult for him not to think of a fixed pothole as a roadside bomb and it took a while to remember, “…you’re at home, this is not going to happen here.”

After being medically cleared in September 2003, he received orders that he wouldn’t be returning to his unit in Iraq, but to the United States Military Academy, West Point, as a Company & Battalion Tactical NCO. Nearly three years later, on June 1st, 2006, Chris retired after 23 years of service due to the request of his daughters. Erin, his oldest daughter, told him that she and her sister wanted their daddy back.

I was curious about what brought Chris to Easter Seals and he says that his VA representative told him about the open Training Specialist position. He interviewed, got the job and worked at Easter Seals from 2009-2010 until the Operation Employ Veterans program lost its funding. While unemployed he helped other veterans put together resumes and find work until he realized that it was time to do something for him. He contacted Easter Seals to catch up with a friend and found out the Community OneSource Manager position was open. He was encouraged to apply and within a couple of weeks Chris was able to continue his journey with Easter Seals and Veteran Services.

“There are a lot of skill-sets that I had learned in the military that I took for granted and that I found out are really needed in the civilian world,” says Chris. “One of the hardest parts of my job today is getting veterans to realize that the skills they have are needed.” On behalf of Easter Seals, we thank Chris Dillon for his service, for welcoming home veterans, and for helping them realize their fullest potential in the work force.

If you want to support employment for veterans, here’s a way you can help right now: visit our Honoring Those Who Serve Challenge page on CrowdRise and make a donation, or learn more at www.easterseals.com/veterans.

How to hire a veteran, part two

by Col. David Sutherland

Someone told me a story this summer about a large communications agency that claimed it wanted to hire veterans and had posted all of its job openings to HireHeroes.org, but then said that it wasn’t getting very many responses and those that were submitted weren’t qualified. This company decided there just must not be a lot of veterans with communications skills looking for jobs in the Washington, DC area.

Those excuses are a good example of the disconnect between military and civilians. Posting a job on HireHeroes.org is like posting to Monster.com. It’s a start, but it’s not nearly enough. Organizations need to make systemic changes, starting with getting out of their offices and into the field. Even if you don’t have any positions open immediately, isn’t it worth attending a HireHeroes career fair or a trade show like AUSA to meet the impressive men and women who are serving or have served this country? It will also give you the opportunity to learn how to look at skill sets, not just technical ability on paper.

Here’s another thought: hire a veteran as an HR recruiter. Greg Jaffe of The Washington Post wrote a poignant story about Oklahoma National Guard troops returning from Afghanistan and struggling to find work. Due to budget cutbacks, the National Guard soldier responsible for helping veterans find jobs was getting cut himself. Talk about the perfect candidate for an HR department seeking to increase its veteran staffers! Have you reached out to your local National Guard yet to seek out candidates?

JP Morgan made a major change in its organization, moving hiring of veterans out of diversity and into Human Resources. It then created an entire program devoted to recruitment and retention of veterans, focusing on quality of life. To make it “real,” the corporation put Tom Higgins, a former Coastie, in charge of the entire thing. Do you think JP Morgan Chase is meeting its veterans’ recruitment goals? You bet they are.

If you’re a recruiter or HR professional struggling to figure out how veterans fit into your organization, reach out to me via the Dixon Center for Military and Veterans Community Services web site. I’d be happy to give you some pointers and connect you to good resources — people who will work beyond a job board listing and will customize programs to help meet your needs.

These pictures are worth way more than 1000 words

by MacKenzie Olsberg

Orbiters by Kevin Olsberg

Several of my family members have an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), so I’ve had a lot of time to watch the ways they act compared with people in other families. In our house, I don’t dare sit in one of “their” chairs. Rituals must, must be adhered to. To do otherwise risks, well, not the best reaction. The details expressed during dinner conversations can be overwhelming, and discussions often become one-sided very quickly.

This is what I grew up with, though, so I have never known otherwise. I’m older now and, as I realize just how different my family is from other families, I’m starting to appreciate the differences so much more. Sometimes I even crave the comfort of listening to incessant talk about Cubs baseball stats from 30 years ago, or hearing detail after detail about obscure topics like Irukandji syndrome, you know, the condition induced by the venomous sting of Carukia barnesi, a species of Irukandji jellyfish…and, oh yeah, certain other box jellyfish, too.

But really, what else are we going to talk about at the dinner table? How my day went? My day is the same every day — let’s talk about fatal jellyfish stings!

Every once in a while, words prove elusive to my family members with ASD. They can sit there in silence for various reasons. It doesn’t necessarily make them unexpressive or rude, though, just selective in how they want to express themselves, and what medium they want to use to do so.

Sometimes the things we create with our hands in those moments of silence say more than words can to express the way we’re feeling. My father paints landscapes of the sea. Translation: he wants to take a vacation. My sister sews a beautiful ballroom dance dress. Translation: she wants to laugh and feel pretty. And me, with my own learning disabilities? You might find me sitting with a book in a corner or sketching a fierce dragon. Translation: I want to have an adventure.

Moments of silence can become the most expressive time for people who have trouble finding words. To give you more examples, I’ll be introducing you to Easter Seals clients who are telling beautiful stories through their artwork in a series of upcoming posts here on the Easter Seals blog. Stay tuned!

Something is terribly wrong

by Beth Finke

The media didn’t spend a lot of time discussing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) when the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York City last month, but our Easter Seals blogger David Sutherland, a retired Army Colonel, sure was paying attention. A post COL Sutherland wrote called “Important treaty on disabilities languishes in the Senate” was recently published on The Hill’s Congress Blog. An excerpt from his guest post:

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was signed by President Obama in 2009. Since then, it has been signed and ratified by 132 countries including Canada, Ireland and the European Union. Even the Castro regime, China and Sudan – hardly iconic world leaders in human rights and human dignity – have ratified the treaty. But the U.S. Senate, whose constitutional job it is to provide advice and consent on treaties, has sat on the sidelines.

COL Sutherland is a co-founder and chairman of the Dixon Center for Military and Veterans Community Services here at Easter Seals, and his guest post went on to explain that the Convention will be introduced in the Senate once again. He urged senators to join veterans John McCain, John Kerry and Bob Dole, who all spoke out as senators in 2012 in favor of ratification. Read COL Sutherland’s guest post on The Hill in its entirety here. When you’re done, you may end up agreeing when he says in the post that “When some of the world’s worst human rights abusers have ratified an important treaty on human rights but the United States has not, something is terribly wrong.”

2013 Government Shutdown & People with Disabilities

by Jennifer Dexter

Being a native Washingtonian and one of the people that represents Easter Seals on Capitol Hill, it is hard to see what is happening right now during the government shutdown. Imagine if all of the sudden a vast majority of your town was all laid off at once. Knowing the impact this will have for my family and friends is scary. But what I am particularly worried about is what this shutdown and the larger inability of our Congress to reach agreements on funding priorities means for people with disabilities throughout the country.

People with disabilities rely on government services to live, learn and work in their communities. Federal services and supports for people with disabilities have already faced years of stagnant or decreasing funding while the demand for services is increasing. With each step in this ongoing budget debate, services to people with disabilities have suffered. The shutdown will mean that people with disabilities will face delays in applying for and receiving direct benefits; education programs like Head Start may start shutting down; federal funding for food programs like WIC (Women, Infants and Children) and Meals on Wheels will stop coming; and more. These affects will just get worse the longer the shutdown goes on.

Easter Seals is working to stop the shutdown and make sure that Congress prioritizes the needs of people with disabilities. You can help by contacting your member of Congress and adding your voice. Thanks.

$75,000 could be ours

by Beth Finke

At risk of showing my age here, I just gotta say, Paul Newman was one of those actors you just couldn’t resist. It’s still a thrill to have anything at all to do with Paul Newman, so I am tickled to learn that Newman’s Own Foundation has chosen Easter Seals and Dixon Center as one of a few nonprofit organizations to participate in their new Honoring Those Who Serve Challenge.

The Foundation is continuing Paul Newman’s commitment to the brave men and women in the military community, and here at Easter Seals we have a strong commitment to the military community, too: Easter Seals has been serving America’s veterans since WWII. As tens of thousands of service members return from Iraq and Afghanistan with new and unmet needs, the demand for the services we provide continues to increase. Our partnership with Dixon Center has expanded our reach and ability to serve veterans and their families.

Between now and Veterans Day, Newman’s Own Foundation will be donating $180,000 to organizations like ours that have highly-effective programs focused on empowering military personnel, veterans and their families. The charity that raises the most during the challenge will receive a first place $75,000 donation from the Foundation. Second and third place and bonus donations are also available.

This is a tremendous opportunity for us to get more resources to serve more military families, and our goal is to raise as much money as possible so we can win the $75,000 grand prize donation.

Here’s where you can help: please donate now to help us help more veterans. Our veterans have given so much of themselves serving our country, please help us to serve them as they face critical needs of their own when they come back home.

A different look at volunteering

by Beth Finke

Katherine Schneider is a retired clinical psychologist and disability advocate with a new book coming out this fall called “Occupying Aging: Delights, Disabilities and Daily Life.” The two of us have never met face to face, but we’ve come to know each other virtually through blogging. Dr. Schneider’s blog is called Kathie Comments, and I’m pleased to introduce her as a guest blogger on the Easter Seals blog today.

Web of service

by Katherine Schneider, Ph.D.

Dr. Katherine Schneider with her Seeing Eye dog, Luna

My volunteer work on National Day of Service this year in honor of the victims of 9/11 gave me time to reflect on the combinations of serving and being served in my life. I am blind and love to cook — and eat! A volunteer drives me to the grocery store every month, and in exchange, the driver gets a free parking spot in my driveway, half a block from campus here at University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. On the National Day of Service I gave blood at a National Red Cross blood drive, and I was accompanied by my Seeing Eye dog Luna, who serves every day, nobly and selflessly.

I’ve had wonderful opportunities for service, ranging from mentoring blind students to serving on city, county, and state boards. Too often people with disabilities stop themselves from volunteering for several reasons:

• Nobody asks them,
• They don’t know where to start,
• They don’t think they have anything to give.

I think those of us with disabilities are in a unique spot to give help: we know about particular needs and have figured out tricks of the trade to deal with them. I get great joy out of meeting a real human need, and National Day of Service gave me an opportunity to reflect once again on what Rabindranath Tagore says: “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”