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A concern raised by the mother of a child with Down syndrome more than 30 years ago still resonates with Stephen Hinkle.
The woman wanted to know from Hinkle – then-executive director, now president of Easter Seals Arc of Northeast Indiana – what was going to happen to her daughter when she was gone.
He’s spent more than three decades trying to answer that question for thousands of families who have loved ones with disabilities.
Meeting clients’ needs goes well beyond providing a roof and a meal, Hinkle said.
He used the example of Easter Seals’ adult day program, in which staff members coordinate activities for people with more serious disabilities who don’t have jobs. It’s more than custodial care, Hinkle said. Activities include art and baking cookies as well as pursuits tailored to individuals, he said.
The adult day program is one of the organization’s fastest-growing services. And that’s saying something at Easter Seals Arc. While many employers are shedding jobs, the non-profit continues to expand, in staff and programs.
As of mid-March, the agency had 581 employees and expects to employ more than 600 by year’s end.
It serves about 2,000 people with disabilities or special needs annually, and its client base has grown about 10 percent the past two years.
Hinkle said the organization is looking to expand the adult day program to include people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Easter Seals is looking at remodeling 20,000 square feet of its 70,000-plus-square-foot headquarters on Coldwater Road for the expansion.
Growth is nothing new for Easter Seals. Ten years ago, it employed 321, up from 185 in 1992; the staff increased to 478 in 2003.
The organization moved administrative offices to its current location in 2005. Its programs eventually followed, leaving a smaller office on Thompson Avenue, a building that often had to be sandbagged to keep out floodwaters from the St. Marys River.
When the Fort Wayne State Developmental Center closed in April 2007, many of its clients came to Easter Seals. Others who might have gone to that center now turn to Easter Seals.
Indiana is following a national push toward home-based care, and Easter Seals assists many of its clients in their homes.
“The bulk of our employees are in the community,” said Sue Klug, the organization’s human resources director.
In addition to helping in assisted-living arrangements, some employees work in group homes owned by Easter Seals.
The rise in diagnosed cases of autism has also increased demand for Easter Seals services, Hinkle said.
According to a February 2007 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in every 150 American children has autism.
To keep up with demand for all types of services, Easter Seals Arc officials say employee numbers have doubled roughly every seven years. The agency’s revenue increased from about $15.6 million in 2007 to $17.5 million last year.
Most of Arc’s employees provide life-skills training such as cooking, cleaning and personal hygiene, and they take clients on recreational outings.
Easter Seals also employs custodians, maintenance workers, office staff and managers. The average pay for hourly workers is $10.51. Average hourly pay for salary jobs is $18.82.
Klug and others say the non-profit will add employees as demand requires, but it expects to do so with less money. Easter Seals is anticipating a 12 percent decline in revenue this year based on changes in the state’s reimbursement structure, chief financial officer Rebecca Fleming said.
Most of its funding comes from the state and federal government. But it also gets some revenue from private sources, including donations and manufacturing contracts.
The recession has hurt many non-profits as donations have declined. Last year, Easter Seals received $732,000 in contributions, down 26 percent from $992,000 in 2007.
But its client base is growing, and it could see increased revenue from another source.
Hinkle said the organization is going through an ISO certification process that’s expected to be completed in May. ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, is the world’s largest developer and publisher of international standards and is recognized by manufacturers worldwide.
Easter Seals has the necessary governmental certification to provide services to people with disabilities. But increasing standardization in its programs, Hinkle said, should reduce medication errors and improve services. ISO certification will likely lead to more contract bids.
Those contracts are filled at a 60,000-square-foot workshop on the Coldwater Road campus. The contracts provide work opportunities to about 225 adults with disabilities, including Mike Kirk, 56.
Kirk has autism, reads at a second-grade level and is non-communicative, speaking maybe a sentence a week, said his father, Dick Kirk.
But Mike runs a five-thread industrial sewing machine to stitch, among other items, weighted blankets for SensorCritters. The local company develops products to aid people with autism and sensory processing disorders.
“It’s remarkable to me that they found a spot for him and that he’s a reasonably productive worker,” Dick Kirk said. Despite his disabilities, Mike Kirk lives alone and travels by bus daily to Easter Seals.
He first connected with the organization 46 years ago at age 10, going to school at the old ARC office on Thompson Avenue. He’s been working on the manufacturing side since he was 18.
Such long-term client-organization relationships are another reason Dick Kirk thinks Easter Seals is growing. For his son, the day job means the world.
“It’s his life; … it’s very, very important to him.”
