2023 Annual Report
for the 12 Months Ending 8/31/23
CONNECTING
the DOTS
True Integration of Care
OUR MISSION
To provide plans of care comprised of thoughtfully integrated services that help those with varied abilities live, learn, work, and play throughout their lifetimes.
OUR VALUES
Dedicated to serving people in need.
Respectful of individuals and their unique experiences, perspectives, and circumstances.
Committed to excellence in our work and relationships.
Inspired by strengths and motivated by possibilities.
Motivated to promote independence as a basic human need.
Passionate collaborators in our community.
Eager to provide transparency as a means of building trust.
Grateful to receive and steward community support.
LETTER FROM our
BOARD CHAIR and PRESIDENT
Dear Friends,
It is a pleasure to share the Easterseals NH & VT 2023 Annual Report with you. Last year was one of tremendous progress as we continue to collaborate across the agency to implement the strategic plan we adopted in 2022.
We spent the better part of 2023 connecting the dots among programs, identifying existing synergies and forming new ones. The process was by no means quick or easy. We credit staff and leadership for their incredible passion and dedication to our mission of elevating all abilities. They spent countless hours doing a deep dive into our programs, learning from and listening to each other, touring program facilities, and developing ways to make every program an entrance to every other—all while continuing to provide holistic, integrated, and comprehensive levels of care to our clients at the highest standard of excellence.
We could not be prouder of all we have achieved thus far in realizing our vision of being a top provider of choice, empowering those of every age and stage of life. From business planning to recruitment, leadership changes to targeted marketing, our actions will benefit those we serve today and beyond. The following pages include details about strategic plan implementation, updates on special projects, and stories illustrating how our hard work is paying off for people in our community.
Support from friends like you, our donors, partners, volunteers, and sponsors makes all we do for our clients and their families possible. Thank you for being there for us.
With gratitude,
Andy MacWilliam
Board Chair
Maureen Beauregard
President & CEO
a YEAR of CONNECTING GOALS to ACTIONS
To achieve our goal of integrating services, we restructured how we work at Easterseals NH & VT and how we think and talk about what we do. Business planning involved many cross-organizational meetings, presentations, and internal communications about a fundamental change in messaging. We shifted from an organization with multiple programs operating independently to one united in serving the whole person. We grouped services by life stage—child, adult, and older adult. When a person receives a referral to Easterseals NH & VT for any service, we consider the other ways we could be there for them and their family throughout their lives. This approach is making for better outcomes for all and a greater sense of community for our employees.
Business Planning Success
To achieve our goal of integrating services, we restructured how we work at Easterseals NH & VT and how we think and talk about what we do. Business planning involved many cross-organizational meetings, presentations, and internal communications about a fundamental change in messaging. We shifted from an organization with multiple programs operating independently to one united in serving the whole person. We grouped services by life stage—child, adult, and older adult. When a person receives a referral to Easterseals NH & VT for any service, we consider the other ways we could be there for them and their family throughout their lives. This approach is making for better outcomes for all and a greater sense of community for our employees.
Meeting Hiring Needs
During and following the COVID-19 pandemic, we were challenged to fill positions at every level. We directed our energy and hiring efforts toward recruiting direct support professionals for Easterseals NH Gammon Academy (our Residential & Educational Services program), certified instructors for our NAEYC-accredited Child Development Centers, and health professionals for our Farnum substance use treatment program. We looked at the needs and positions in these programs from every angle. Compensation increases, sign-on bonuses, the return of in-person orientations, and marketing campaigns around the extrinsic benefits of an Easterseals NH & VT career all made a difference.
Welcoming New Leaders
In 2023, we created several new leadership roles to coordinate services across programs, build on our clinical excellence, and raise awareness of our agency. We welcomed Bruce Bacon as Senior Vice President, Human Resources; Amy Joslin as Senior Vice President, Practice Management; Kristen McGuigan as Senior Vice President, Early Childhood Services; and Michele Talwani, Senior Vice President, Community Relations. We are honored to round out our team with the addition of these talented, experienced, and accomplished professionals.
Targeted Marketing Campaigns
While recruiting was an area of emphasis for marketing, so was increasing our consumer base. The pandemic influenced the number of in-person clients we could serve and shifted some of our health appointments online. Now that COVID has been mitigated, we could return to pre-COVID numbers in our facilities. For our Adult Day program, it meant we could increase capacity at both our Manchester and Rochester locations and welcome those with more advanced stages of dementia. Farnum, our substance use treatment program, could again host meetings in-person and resume in-office health appointments. To spread the word, we launched two comprehensive marketing campaigns for our Adult Day and Farnum programs.
STRATEGIC PLAN SUMMARY
Our Strategic Imperative
Focus ● Continuum of Care ● Integration ● Access
Our Enterprise Goals
our STATEWIDE PRESENCE
New Hampshire
Camping & Recreation
Camp Sno-Mo is our residential camp for youth featuring water sports, team sports, hiking, archery, arts and crafts, and more at our fully accessible location in New Hampshire’s Lakes Region.
Community-Based Services
Residential and community based support for individuals with intellectual disabilities or acquired brain injuries promoting independence and inclusion in their communities.
Early Childhood Services
Affordable, inclusive, and NAEYC accredited child care for children of all abilities from six weeks to five years of age at our centers in Manchester.
Housing
Providing rapid access to stable housing and comprehensive services for individuals and families who are homeless or housing insecure.
Information & Referral
Connecting New Hampshire residents with valuable information and guidance so they can find the support they need to move forward.
Residential & Educational Services
CARF-accredited special education and therapeutic services for children and youth ages 5 to 21. Services range from intensive-level care in residential settings to support for individuals at home or in their community.
Senior Services
Promoting better living while aging in place for older adults. On-site Adult Day with peers in a therapeutic and caring environment. In-home services include one-to-one support with housekeeping, errands, personal care, and nursing needs.
Substance Use Treatment/Services
Farnum is our CARF-accredited, comprehensive alcohol and other substance use treatment program for adults that offers detoxification, residential, medication-assisted treatment (MAT), outpatient, and provider services.
Transportation Services
Accessible door-to-door transportation services for program participants, students, and seniors that help them stay independent and connected to the community.
Veterans Count
Providing critical and timely case management and clinical services, as well as financial assistance, to service members, veterans, and their families when other resources are not available.
Workforce Development
Partnering with employers, schools, and other nonprofit and government agencies to assist youth and adults in achieving goals of education, training, volunteering, and meaningful employment.
Vermont
Balanced and Restorative Justice
This program has a single mission: to enhance youth-focused restorative justice in the Middlebury District. We create safe, youth-based learning environments, identify skills and resource gaps, and support youth to become productive and invested community members.
Child & Family Support Programs
Collaborate closely with the Department for Children and Families and parents who are striving to establish safety for their children in an effort to help families create wellbeing for their children. This service provides five different interventions: Family Time Coordination, Family Finding, Family Safety Planning, Care Coordination, and Family Time Coaching.
Compass
A prevention and stabilization program that serves at-risk youth ages 12 to 23 in Rutland county. Our program supports youth and families in developing well-being, education and employment, permanent connections, and stable living environments as youth transition to adulthood.
Intensive Family Based Services
Supports children and their families facing challenges that threaten their stability and safety at home and in their community through assessment, case management, facilitating community connections, and identification of family and natural support as well as crisis management planning.
Post Permanency
Provides additional support for families formed by adoption or guardianship. Services focus on helping families identify their strengths, establish goals, and locate community resources for ongoing support while addressing common issues that many adoptive and kinship families face.
Substance Use Testing
A tool that can monitor an adult’s progress in treatment as well as inform risk and safety when children and youth are receiving services from the Department for Children and Families.
Transportation Services
Accessible door-to-door transportation services for program participants, students, and seniors that help them stay independent and connected to the community.
Youth Development Program
Helps youth and young adults ages 14 to 22 formerly in foster care make the transition to adulthood and independent living. Clients determine their goals, and our experienced coordinators create opportunities for them to achieve those goals.
our IMPACT
People Served in FY 2023
our FINANCIAL STATEMENT for FY 2023*
Revenues
| Program Service Fees & Grants | $106,888,819 |
| Contributed Income & Other Revenues | $4,029,663 |
| Total Operating Income | $110,918,482 |
Expenses
| Program & Support Services | $97,151,307 |
| Administration | $10,701,674 |
| Total Operating Expenses | $107,852,981 |
Public Support
| Special Events (net) | $925,659 |
| Contributions and Bequests | $1,068,785 |
| Annual Campaigns (net) | $372,283 |
| Total Public Support | $2,366,727 |
| Free and Reduced-Price Services | $8,994,116 |
*Note: Unaudited Preliminary Numbers (from 9/1/2022 to 8/31/2023)
STORIES of SERVICE
Alycin
Easterseals Vermont has been an unwavering ally for Alycin, supporting her longer than she can remember. Alycin was first introduced to Easterseals VT through Child and Family Support (CFS), a program that supports at-risk families separated due to safety concerns. Alycin was adopted and supported through Easterseals VT’s Post Permanency Services, which provides additional support for families formed by adoption or guardianship. Alycin’s adoption was discontinued, but connecting the dots through other programs allowed her to continue to receive support from Easterseals VT.
At the age of 16, Alycin joined Easterseals VT’s Youth Development Program (YDP). YDP supports teens and young adults transitioning out of foster care to adulthood by helping them identify their goals and create opportunities for them to achieve those goals.
With financial assistance from YDP, Alycin was able to continue pursuing her love and passion for horseback riding. She also became a licensed driver and was able to purchase a reliable vehicle and secure stable housing.
In addition to providing financial assistance, Alycin’s YDP coordinator, Leah Houston, connected her with other community resources to help her achieve independence, connecting her with tools to help further her education and helping her research local job opportunities in her career field. Alycin is now studying nursing at the Community College of Vermont and aspires to become a forensic nurse. She currently holds two jobs in the medical field, one as a sterile processing technician at her local hospital and another on her local emergency rescue squad.
Alycin’s involvement with Easterseals VT doesn’t end there. For the last two years, she has supported Over the Edge, the agency’s chief fundraising event. She has also raised more than $2,000 in funds to give back to YDP with the hope that other foster youth can have the opportunities and support she has.
As Alycin’s time with YDP ends, she reflects on how far she’s come, “I’ve enjoyed watching myself grow and learn so many things.”
Brian
While seeking treatment for alcohol addiction, Brian was in danger of losing his home. Behind on several months of mortgage payments, he connected with Veterans Count clinical project director Cheryl Neiverth in May 2023.
“Veterans Count helped me with all of my debt in so many ways,” Brian says. “They found funding to keep my electricity on. They paid my mortgage for two months.”
Brian immediately returned to work upon his discharge from the White River Junction VA, but his struggles with alcohol continued. At eight o’clock one morning, Cheryl received a phone call. “It was Brian on the other end,” she recalls, “saying that he had been sitting on the floor since 3 am waiting to call me. He had made a decision that he was either going to call me and do exactly what I told him to do if it would help him get better, or he was done.”
Within a few hours, Brian was admitted to Farnum. During his treatment there, he remained in regular communication with Cheryl, and Gabi Teed, his care coordinator with Veterans Count. Both continued to help secure funding for Brian’s financial responsibilities.
Connecting the dots between programs within Easterseals, Cheryl says, was essential in helping Brian during his recovery journey. “We try to bridge that gap to make their transition out a little bit easier so that they are not walking out with the stress that’s a potential trigger for their relapse,” she says.
Brian has now been sober for more than five months and has even rediscovered a love for drawing as a creative outlet. “I am forever in debt to Easterseals for pulling all the strings so that I’m not worried about this and that…I really don’t have anything to be sad about. I have a really good family, and I have really good support.”
Teddy
A Manchester native, Teddy first started receiving services from Easterseals NH as a young child following a cognitive functioning impairment caused by lead poisoning. Fast forward decades later, and Teddy and his older brother, Daniel, became regulars of Easterseals NH’s Adult Day program.
Unfortunately, Daniel’s declining health and subsequent passing in January 2022 caused Teddy to lose much of his independence. “He always lived with Daniel,” says Senior Services care coordinator Laurie Kelly. “He was never without him since childhood.”
Teddy eventually became a client of Easterseals NH’s Community-Based Services (CBS) through a referral between programs, both overseen by committed leaders advocating and championing for his success. Today, he is living with a new home care provider in Manchester.
“I kept thinking that, if we don’t connect these dots, this man could be lost, never mind in the community but in a housing situation where it was not safe for him,” Laurie says.
Teddy’s transition hasn’t been without its challenges. These have included everything from acquiring hearing aids and dentures to finding a home that would also accommodate his cat—Teddy has overcome all of these obstacles during his journey of regaining independence.
“We’ve really strived to be One Easterseals over the last couple of years, and I think Teddy assisted in opening a door for that transition,” says Samantha Scarfo, residential director for CBS.
Teddy has even taken it upon himself to get a job. He now works part-time at Market Basket in Bedford as a bagger while he continues to attend our Adult Day program in Manchester four days a week.
our DONORS
PROJECT UPDATES
Military & Veterans Campus
A first-of-its-kind to serve those who served.
In early 2022, Easterseals NH was awarded $23M from the State of NH through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) State Fiscal Recovery Funds(SFRF) to develop a campus for military members and their families. Easterseals NH has a 15-acre campus and facilities in Franklin that will be developed into a center of excellence and first-of-its-kind in New Hampshire.
The campus will provide enhanced support for military community members and their families through access to a variety of services and recreation activities in one location. A ceremonial groundbreaking of our Military & Veterans Campus was hosted in September 2023, with more than 300 community partners attending.
The campus is expected to complete its first phase by early 2025. The first phase will include affordable housing (30 units of permanent affordable rental housing for veterans), a hub of services, and portions of the retreat center. Additional funds will be raised to make the retreat center fully accessible and to build a multipurpose therapeutic recreation building, military themed playground, and outdoor performance stage.
Champlin Place
Affordable Apartment Community for Ages 62+
Champlin Place sits on beautiful wooded acreage in Rochester, New Hampshire and will be ready for occupancy in January 2024. The property is designed to meet the needs of residents 62 years of age or older who want to live in an affordable, well-equipped, modern apartment in an independent living setting. Residents will benefit from easy access to a full array of Easterseals NH’s supportive services.
With 65 one- and two-bedroom apartment homes (60 one-bedroom and five two-bedroom), the three story, secured entry building features elevators, indoor mail delivery, a community room and a social room. Each level of the building has laundry and trash rooms. Apartments feature modern finishes, large windows, walk-in closets, and all kitchen appliances, including a dishwasher and microwave. Other features include property-wide smoke-free living, outdoor leisure space and on-site parking. Heat and hot water are included in the rental rate. All units are constructed to facilitate independent living. Five units are compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design.
New Gammon Academy School
Empowering every learner: A true Center of Excellence
Easterseals NH is embarking on building a new purpose-built school for its Manchester-based residential-education programs on its Zachary Road campus. The new Gammon Academy School is specifically designed to meet the accessibility standards the students we serve deserve. A true center of excellence, the school will have larger classrooms, upgraded technology, wider hallways to accommodate students with mobility aids, student support rooms, and space where therapists can provide occupational, speech, and physical therapy sessions.
Easterseals NH was awarded $5M in Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery funding from the State of New Hampshire to design and build a new school on our Zachary Road campus in Manchester, with the goal to enhance our residential-education programs. We matched this funding with our own $5M. Construction of the new school began in October 2023, with an estimated completion date of September 30, 2024.
The new two-story, 27,340 square foot school will replace our existing two schools in Manchester and will feature three staff conference rooms, a new accessible playground, upgraded technology such as smart monitors for each classroom, and eight rooms for speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and other therapeutic care.
RECAP OF OUR 2023 EVENTS
22nd Annual HK Powersports Land & Lake Poker Run
On July 8, over 500 participants gathered at The NASWA Resort on Lake Winnipesaukee for the 22nd Annual HK Powersports Land & Lake Poker Run to benefit Easterseals NH’s core programs. A Lakes Region tradition, the event raised over $100,000, bringing the total donations over the years to $1.7 million. This year’s pirate theme was a crowd pleaser, with boats, cars, and participants decked out for adventure and the grand finale Buccaneer Bash on the beach at the NazBar. Pirate’s hats off to our volunteer event organizers, who attended to every detail to make this Poker Run one of our best. Many thanks to our sponsors and all who donated items to our auction.
Eversource Walk & 5K Run
Over 1,300 participants registered for the Eversource Walk & 5K Run for Easterseals NH held in downtown Manchester NH’s Veterans Park on June 1, raising over $140,000 for our programs. Hundreds braved the unseasonably hot and humid weather on race day to run and walk in support of their neighbors. Volunteers, vendors, sponsors, and our in-house DJ kept the atmosphere fun and lively before the shotgun start at 6 pm. Teams, individuals, and families enjoyed food trucks, city views from the Eversource bucket truck, and Wellness Alley vendor tables. We are grateful to everyone who contributed to the event’s success.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Bradford Cook, Esq, Linda Uliva James, Tracey Pelton, Charles S. Goodwin, Matthew Boucher, PAST CHAIR, Ryan C. Fox, Eddie Edwards
FRONT ROW L. TO R.
William Lambrukos, Mary Flowers, SECRETARY, Nathan Saller, Andy MacWilliam, CHAIR, Gregory Baxter, MD, Linda Roth, Bryan Bouchard, TREASURER
NOT PICTURED
Tom Sullivan, VICE CHAIRMAN, Paul E. Voegelin, ASST TREASURER, Trevor Arp, Rick Courtemanche, Elizabeth Hitchcock, Lucy Lange, Richard Rawlings, Sanjeev Srinivasan, Susan Martore-Baker, Tim Wade, Rob Wieczorek