Search

When Easterseals Pre-Vocational Services group enters the room, it is all hands (and paws) on deck to help Faithful Friends stay in tip top shape so they can continue the great work they do in the community. While the Easterseals participants are helping Faithful Friends, they are also learning valuable job skills that can lead to full-time, paid employment.

It is hard to find a group of people who bring dedication and a hard-working attitude but also smiles with them. The CHEER Center, which serves seniors in the Sussex County Region, found that in a group of volunteers from Easterseals Pre-Vocational Services. Participants at Easterseals love volunteering in the community, and thanks to this partnership, they are able to do just that while learning valuable work
skills.

Brian Perry, of Frederica, DE, is a world traveler, recently returning from Germany where he competed in the Special Olympics World Games as a swimming champion representing the United States. Meanwhile at home, his team at the café at Delaware State University, where he has worked for the last ten years through Easterseals’ Supported Employment program, was cheering him on.

Easterseals Delaware & Maryland’s Eastern Shore recently received a $25,000 grant through Discover Bank to support its Supported Employment program – a program that opens the door to meaningful work and competitive wages in the community for adults with intellectual disabilities, while providing employers with dedicated, productive employees.

When most young adults graduate from high school, they typically know which direction they are going to head, whether it be attending college or jumping right into a job. When Mikayla graduated from high school, she and her mom, Michele, knew exactly where to turn and it was the place where she began many years before -- Easterseals!

Easterseals Delaware & Maryland’s Eastern Shore is proud to be the first recipient of the Better Business Bureau’s “Thrive Award for Community Impact”, an award to celebrate leaders that embrace diversity and inclusion in their business. Easterseals, a leading provider of services for people with disabilities, earned this award because of its dedication to reflect diversity in its workforce and service recipients, as well as its role in building a more inclusive work environment in businesses across the state through its Supported Employment Program.

Mikayla Buterbaugh, of Newark (formerly of Middletown), recently testified at Delaware’s Joint Finance Budget Hearing sharing her experience with Easterseals and pleading with the committee to ensure fair pay for Direct Support Professionals, who support adults with disabilities like Mikayla.

An indispensable resource for the region, Easterseals Delaware & Maryland’s Eastern Shore is celebrating 75 years of creating an inclusive community for local children and adults with disabilities, seniors, and their families. Though early services focused solely on children’s therapy services, Easterseals has expanded over the years to meet the needs of adults with disabilities and seniors through innovative services to ensure they have equal opportunities to live, learn, work and play in their communities.