Easter seals
Easter Seals is a non-profit organization in the United States that provides programs and services to help both children and elders with disabilities to achieve independence. It was founded in the year 1919 by Edgar Allen after a personal tragedy and his discoveries following that. The Easter seals have collected funds through the decorative stamps which were also useful in creating awareness among the people about the problems and the kind of support needed and available to the disabled. Today disabled children exceeding more than one million in number are receiving assistance form more than 450 service sites of Easter Seals. These service centers provide the best of family focused services.
The birth of Eater Seals
Edgar Allen, a businessman from Ohio, lost his son in a road accident due to lack of proper medical treatment. This tragedy inspired him to start a fund raising campaign to build a hospital in his hometown. He was surprised to discover that the children with disabilities were hidden from public view thereby denying them treatment and keeping them disabled for life. He founded the National Society for Crippled Children in the year 1919. It was in the spring of 1934 that the organization launched its Seals campaign to raise funds to meet the cost of its services. The people who wanted to support this cause bought and used the Seals on their letters and envelopes. A simple seal with the picture of a lily, the symbol of spring was used in the logo of the Seal since it depicts new life since 1952. The overwhelming public support for the organization for these seals resulted in the wide recognition of the seal by the year 1967 and the campaign formally adopted the name Easter Seals. Year after year the Easter Seals are gaining more popularity and overwhelmingly supported by all communities.
Services
Easter Seals enlists the families of the patients and support them in all ways. They provide medial treatment and rehabilitation services with early intervention are the steps taken towards making them independent. Their services can be broadly categorized as Medical Rehabilitation, Early Intervention, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech and Hearing Therapy, Job Training and Placement and Child Care. These services are made available throughout the country in their local areas so that people from all areas can benefit without having to travel long distances.
The disability may be due to an accident, or a child born with cerebral palsy, or an old person recovering from a stroke and such other reasons. They all need the care and medical attention and ways for rehabilitation. These are the people who need the care and treatment for becoming self reliant once again and participate in the community activities and contribute to it. The Services of Easter Seals take care of this very important aspect of the rehabilitation process.
Services to the disabled and their family members
Both children and the adults who are disabled and with special needs can get the highest-quality treatment and other services designed to suit their individual needs from the hundreds of centers of Easter Seals. The teams of medical professionals, teachers and other professionals help each person overcome obstacles to independence and motivate them to achieve success in reaching personal goals. They provide the proper treatment, training and counseling to the disabled with utmost dedication and care. Easter Seals also makes it a point to include all the members of the family of the disabled to be active members of any therapy program, and offers all kinds of support to the family members of the disabled. The family members also get inputs on how to deal with the disabled in various situations in a positive way. Tensions within the families can be removed and harmonious atmospheres can speed up the process of healing. They are provided with opportunities to find suitable jobs through training and finding employment so as to become self supporting financially and to reach their personal goals. They provide Child care services to meet the needs of the growing children and to relieve the parents to concentrate on their work without having to worry about the wellbeing of the kids. Children of all abilities form infants to five year olds are given the opportunities of learning together.
The Adult Day programs take care of the disabled adults to live a life of self reliance, happiness and independence meeting all their individual needs. Easter Seals have programs of Camping and Recreation specially designed to suit the disabled to have fun and to make friends through mastering various skills and acquiring knowledge. A safe environment where there are no impediments to their efforts towards independence is provided for the disabled to feel all the experiences of camps and overcome their limitations both physical and emotional. These efforts remove the psychological barriers in the minds of the disabled which prevent them from mixing with other people and to venture into leisure activities without any hesitation. They help the disabled to open up and have communications that can lead to proper understanding of their difficulties by others and pave the way for discussions and finding solutions to specific and individual problems. Easter Seals help build awareness among the disabled and their communities because awareness is the first step towards change. The whole hearted community support and co-operation can go a long way in the rehabilitation of the disabled and can be mutually rewarding.
Efforts of Easter Seals
Having reached its successful 73rd year, Easter Seals is in its annual spring campaign to raise funds for supporting its trail blazing services to ensure that people with autism and disabilities have equal opportunities to live, learn, work and play. Easter Seals advocates for the passage of legislation to help the disabled to achieve independence through the Americans with Disabilities Act. This Act ADA, passed in 1990, prohibits discrimination against the physically or mentally disabled and guarantees the civil rights of the disabled.
About 54 million Americans are disabled in some way. The problems of the disabled are based generally on misinformation and misunderstanding. The lack of proper information and guidance leads to the physical or other barriers that prevent the disabled to become independent. Easter Seals provides the required information and access to the right kind of relief to them. These solutions are aimed to remove their suffering and to change their lives positively. Among the people with disabilities, only 30% are working. To help the other vast number of people with disabilities, the employers and co-workers the US Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy has provided all the information about this subject and the rights of each under the ADA. They provide educational and training facilities to the disabled to empower them enabling them to live with honor and pride.
The Easter Seals has come a long way in succeeding to make the disabled become independent and live normal lives with their loving care. The staff strength of 13000 and thousands of volunteers has made this mission grow in leaps and bounds alleviating the suffering of the millions of the disabled. The commitment and focus in achieving independence for the disabled is the core spirit behind Easter Seals.
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