I was a participant of the Easter Seals employment training program in Bergen County. The program provided me with excellent training and experience in the office environment. I was able to obtain an office position and other employment because of the training and experience. The staff who enrolled me and ran the program were very professional and helpful. They were very nice to me. They ran the Easter Seals the way it was suppose to be run. I was lucky they were the ones who were running the Easter Seals program when I had applied. I also ran into the resource specialist at Blimpies and she told me to make an appointment with her in regard to getting into the Easter Seals training program. She was the one who did the intake but then went on sick leave. The resource specialist who replace her got me into one of the host agencies. She then got into a car accident and never returned to the Easter Seals. She got replaced. The resource specialist that went on sick leave and another resource specialist got terminated by Easter Seals. Another one had resigned. I then started to have a lot of trouble with the resource specialists who took over and also with the director of the Easter Seals program. The way they used their authority was cruel and abusive. They did not give a damn. They were also very disorganized. I did not like how the director repeatedly used the phone calls and meetings to attack me that I was unprofessional and made me look bad. She was really the unprofessional one. The resource specialists and staff repeatedly forced me to report to them at the One Stop Center without notice. The resource specialist that first took over was not friendly with me at the One Stop Center. She was very hostile towards me every time I had to report to Easter Seals at the One Stop Center. One time, she threatened to take the matter outside. After I had thanked her for referring me for an office position and telling her that I got the assignment, she started to get nice to me. I was not happy with how she was running the Easter Seals. She was too strict. She was only the resource specialist for a short while and then resigned from the Easter Seals. I was not happy with her replacement. I had a horrible incident with the director of Easter Seals one morning. I was not home on Friday during the day when the assistant resource specialist had left me a phone message. I was not able to return the call until Monday morning. The resource specialist who answered the phone said that her supervisor wanted to talk to me. The director yelled at me that I was not returning their calls. I told her that I did not get home until 8PM and that I am returning the call now. She immediately suspended me from the host agency. Without giving me any notice, she forced me to report to the One Stop Center that same day with the documents. I commuted by public transportation. I had to take a train back home to get the documents and then take 2 busses to get to the One Stop Center. The buses and trains only run once an hour. They did not care. I was lucky I got to the appointment on time or they may have not shown me any mercy. I should not have been subjected to this abuse because the Easter Seals staff were disorganized. The Easter Seals program paid the participant a small stipend. It gave me an income when the unemployment insurance ran out. The stipend kept getting slashed. It was only good for 4 years unless it got extended one more year. The director said that there would be budget cuts for 4 years. After the 4 years passed, there were more budget cuts. Under Title V, the housing authority paid 100% of the rent while I was in the Easter Seals program. At first, I thought a person only had to be unemployed and meet an age requirement to be in the Easter Seals program. It turned out a person also had to be at the risk of homelessness and have health issues. The quarterly Easter Seals meetings started to get awful. I only liked the June meetings because they had a buffet and gave away prizes. The last June meeting that I attended sucked. The food at that meeting was donated by the church. During one meeting, the director announced that Easter Seals was going to pay the participants by debit card instead of direct deposit. That was a threat and an inconvenience. I got a nasty call from the director when I contacted more than one person to complain about it and told them that I still wanted to be paid by direct deposit. She said I should be training there and that I was unprofessional. She also accused me of harassing them and that I interrupted their business. I did not do anything wrong by contacting her and other staff people about an Easter Seals payroll matter from the host agency. It was a desperate matter that needed to be immediately taken care of. I was very upset by that nasty phone call. There were threats of termination. At the meetings, the participants were constantly being threatened with termination by the resource specialist and director. There was a threat of the resource specialist forcing me to accept a food service position or she would be terminated me. I do not want that on my job resume. I do not want to be trained to be a food service worker. It would be an obstacle to finding a better position and getting employment. It would prevent me from getting office training and experience. Fortunately the resource specialists decided to set up an interview for an office position at a place that I was interested in working at. Someone there was going to be leaving. I was lucky I was able to commute to the host agencies that I had worked at. I was also lucky that I had the computer skills to do the job and that the director of the host agency was interested in hiring me. The participant was rotated to another host agency after a year. For awhile, the director and resource specialist wanted to rotate the participants every 6 months. It was really suppose to be after one year. That would have been an inconvenienced and a threat to be rotated every 6 months. It may not work out. Fortunately, I did not get rotated every 6 months. The Easter Seals director threatened to terminate me if I can not cross the busy intersection to get to the host agency. Fortunately there was a safer place to cross the street. I had no problem commuting and walking to the host agency. The director also threatened me with termination if I was not able to go on an interview during the same day that I had a mandatory meeting with the housing authority or the Board of Social Services. She said that Easter Seals were the ones who paid me. There was even a threat of being rotated to a day care center in Englewood or be terminated. That place is not even local. It would be too hard and dangerous to commute there by public transportation and it was too far. It would cost more in travel expenses to commute there. I did not know if I could even get there by public transportation. Englewood is not the safest place to commute to. I am not familiar with the area. Fortunately fate was on my side and I got rotated to a place in Hackensack instead. There was an incident in which an Easter Seals participant verbally attacked me at one of the host agencies. We started out on good terms until someone at Easter Seals said something negative about me to her. This participant then started to hate me. I was very nice to her. That participant also could not be trusted and used her position and everything against me. Her intent was to make me look bad. The supervisors there allowed that attack to happen. That participant may have complained about me to the supervisors and they deliberately held that meeting so that participant could complain about me. I saw the anger in her face before the incident happened. I sensed that something was wrong. The supervisors wanted her to tell them what was bothering her. They told her to get it out. That is when she suddenly exploded and verbally attacked me. When I argued back with her, she continued to verbally attack me. A big flare up broke out between us. The supervisors allowed the verbal attacks to continue. This host agency was a division of the housing authority. That participant's behavior should not have been tolerated. If she had an issue with me, the supervisor should have addressed this to me privately instead of allowing this participant to make a scene in the meeting room. She created a hostile workplace. What if there were client's there? There were caseworkers working there. The incident was so loud that other people could hear it. The supervisors of the host agency and Easter Seals took no disciplinary action against that person nor did they apologize to me. They were not on my side. The supervisors at the host agency said that since things were not OK between me and that participant, one of us will have to leave. They will go by seniority. Since I had seniority, I thought I was the one they would keep. I lodged a written complaint with Easter Seals about the incident. The director of Easter Seals made a nasty phone call to me and blamed me for the incident. She said that I was unprofessional. She said that since I had the seniority, I was the one who will have to leave and that she will be rotating me. I was there for over a year, so my time was up with them anyway. This was an injustice. I was not the one who instigated the trouble in the meeting room. The person who did cause the trouble was allowed to get away with it. I was a strong asset to that host agency. This was unforgivable. I am lucky that this did not happen before my time was up with that host agency. and that Easter Seals was able to rotate me. It was working out very well at this host agency until that nasty Easter Seals participant came into it. An Easter Seals staff person scheduled an interview for me with another host agency on same day of the Christmas party. She refused to reschedule the interview and made me miss most of the Christmas party at the host agency. I did not make it back there until around the end of it. The supervisor was nice enough to drive me to the interview. When the director made that nasty call to me at the host agency, she also asked me how old I was. When I told her that I did not want to answer, she said she can look it up and continued to harass me to tell her how old I was. I regret even giving any her information. It was none of her business. After I complained about it, she forced me to have a harassing face to face meeting with her and the resource specialists at the One Stop Center They made me look very bad. The director kept denying that she harassed me to tell her how old I was. She contradicts herself by saying the reason she wanted to know how old I was is to see if I was eligible for something and to earn my income that way. It was really none of her business. Her only concern should be the Easter Seals matters. It is not her job to tell me how to run my life. She also forced me to sign a grievance form stating that the grievance has been addressed and that the matter has been resolved. She was the one who had the power. The resource specialist also blamed me because the supervisor of a host agency that was a rape crisis center was not interested in hiring me. The resource specialist twisted things around and made it appear that I was not cooperating. It was very dangerous to cross the street just to get there. There were no traffic lights. Some of the areas did not have sidewalks. This was the meeting that the director threatened to terminate me if I can not cross the busy intersection to get to the host agency. Fortunately, that host agency was interested in hiring me and I had no trouble getting there. It was in a better location. I rather work for a domestic violence center than a rape crisis center. It was interesting reading pamphlets on domestic violence. The director also gave me no recognition for the good evaluations I got from the host agencies. She used the good evaluations as an excuse to rotate me. At that meeting, she also said that if the host agency is always giving me good evaluations, it means that I do not need further training there and that it is time to be rotated to another host agency to get more training. I also needed the office experience and it looks good on the resume. The reason the host agency gave me good evaluations was because my work and attendance was satisfactory. The director only cared about rotating me and did not consider the realities of it. The resource specialist was also nasty to me at the One Stop Center and and harassed me to leave the Easter Seals. She also harassed me to lay out money for a community school and said that Easter Seals will reimburse me. She also harassed me that it was my fault that I could not obtain employment. She compared me to the people who did find employment. It embarrassed me to the Easter Seals staff and the labor department employees who can hear it. I was just there to sign something. I was not happy with this resource specialist. I had a problem with her from the moment I met her. It was a threat that Easter Seals made her the resource specialist after another specialist had resigned. The quarterly meetings that she coordinated were awful. One of the entertainment she had provided was a band from her church that played off tune. That band sounded terrible. I had to go outside so I would not have to listen to it. This resource specialist was cheap with the food. At the last meeting I had attended, this resource specialist was the one who had her church donate the food. Easter Seals did not pay for it. The prize she gave me at one of the meetings was a box of tissues. At first, I had thought it had wrapping paper and that the prize was something else. The other prize she was giving out was a roll of toilet paper. I could not send her an email at the One Stop Center without her private phone getting an alert. I was getting emails from her past business hours. If I sent an email late in the evening, she complained. When she exited me out of Easter Seals and our business was completed, she never gave me the time of day again. I had asked Easter Seals not to contact the employer of the company that I had gotten hired at. One day, the owner of that company invited people from Easter Seals to a luncheon. They looked like the same people I saw at the Easter Seals meetings. I wanted to keep my involvement with Easter Seals a secret from the company. My private and confidential information got breached. Easter Seals embarrassed me to the company. Easter Seals will keep in contact with the company for a year and follow up on the former participant. That is an invasion of privacy. When I emailed the director about it, she sent me a very nasty email and gave me an argument. She oppressed me by saying I don't need to email them. I had the right to email them about Easter Seals matters. I had to keep my silence because it was within the year I had exited Easter Seals and they still had the legal right to contact the company which corporate from the East Brunswick office already did. The owner of the company wanted Easter Seals for a customer. One day in the shipping room, I saw an order that was addressed to Easter Seals at their East Brunswick office. I also did a search on the company terminal and saw that Easter Seals at the East Brunswick office was listed as one of their customers. It was also an embarrassment that Easter Seals forced me to get my doctor involved in order to stay with the program for another year. When I lost the job 2 years later, it was a threat that the director and the resource specialist wanted me to wait right before the employment insurance ran out before contacting them. They were suppose to put me on a waiting list. When I made an inquiry with the director and resource the specialist, the director relayed a nasty message from the resource specialist when I returned her call and was very nasty to me. Again, she told me that I did not need to email them. I had the right to email them about Easter Seals matters. The director and that resource specialist were very nasty and abusive. Fortunately I found other employment. I am glad that I am out of that program and do not have to answer to these people again. I got my life back. I was lucky that I was able to find employment on my own and finally exit the Easter Seals program. So much crap from the director and the resource specialist.
My marketing internship with Easter Seals was more than beneficial. I learned so many valuable marketing and event planning skills, and helping plan their annual "Walk With Me 5K" taught me so much. I came in as a senior in college, not knowing much about the professional world, and walked away with the confidence that I had learned a lot. I made great connections and found my career with Easter Seals because the relationships I made were so strong. Anysa and Ken were important mentors for me, and they were always so eager to help me with anything. I would definitely recommend this opportunity to anyone who wants to expand their marketing and event planning knowledge.
I interned for Easter Seals New Jersey as their Marketing Intern this past summer and fall. It was a great experience and I would do it again! I learned the ins and outs of marketing and event planning! I worked with a great team of genuine people, and gained network connections for my future endeavors. One of the biggest things I am taking with me from Easter Seals is giving back – the whole time I learned about how, every day, our team works together to give back to the 8,000 individuals we help to create the best lives for! I would definitely recommend this opportunity to anyone who is interested in working in the field of Non-Profits, Marketing, and Event Planning, and most importantly, truly realizing what it means to give back to your community. It was a very proactive and positive journey!
I interned with Easter Seals this past summer in their marketing department and had a fantastic experience. The staff was very welcoming and helpful. Any time I had a problem they were always willing to help. During my time at Easter Seals I learned a lot about what goes on in the marketing and events department for a nonprofit and that experience was invaluable. I will always remember my time at Easter Seals and am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such a great nonprofit.
I was an intern for the marketing department at Easter Seals for two months this summer. I really loved the whole experience. Everyone was friendly and receptive from the start. The work that I was assigned was meaningful both to the department/the organization and to my personal development. The people here appear relaxed (everyone smiles and greets you, even if they don't know you), but they are hard workers who are always coming up with fresh new ideas. I miss this place, but lucky for me, they're close by so I can visit. Absolutely recommend helping them out!
I interned with Easter Seals New Jersey (ESNJ) at the administrative headquarters in East Brunswick from January through May of this year and it was a life-changing experience. The one thing that stands out to me the most about ESNJ is that all of the staff members who I encountered, at every level of the organization, are SO passionate about what they do. Everyone is truly dedicated to the organization's mission to help individuals with disabilities or special needs and their families, and they go above and beyond to do so. My role as an intern was assisting with fundraising and development. The organization is both transparent and accountable, and the fundraising efforts of ESNJ are bringing about meaningful, sustainable, and measurable positive change to those they serve.
I was an intern at Easter Seals last summer from May - August. It was a great learning experience. I was exposed to many different areas of a nonprofit. I was placed in the Marketing Department and saw all the hard work this non-profit puts into their events to help raise awareness.
Easter Seals New Jersey is a great place to volunteer. They look at your skills and utilize those skills in all areas; they don't confine you to only one area. The people you work with are supportive and helpful, teaching you and giving you great feedback to help you build your skills. And not only that, but it's a good cause, helping enable individuals with disabilities or special needs, and their families to live, learn, work, and play in their communities with equality, dignity, and independence. The staff at Easter Seals New Jersey makes volunteering there enjoyable, not just because it is a good cause but because they give you work to do that you know is helping to make a difference in peoples' lives.
Easter Seals NJ is a first class non-profit organization. I can see the highest level of integrity in the ways they manage the finances of the organization. There is a real concern for detail, accuracy and excellence in all the work done in the accounting and IT departments at the administration office. Every effort is made to maximize the value of every resource and every dollar. Staff are efficient and productive in their work. Nothing is wasted and many employees volunteer and contribute to the organization. And Easter Seals NJ strives to improve and stay current and productive in their business processes. I am proud to be associated with this exemplary organization.
Easter Seals of NJ Inc has gained the reputation in the New Jersy Social Service community as the true example of what a nonprofit should be. Many of their programs are sought after by individuals with behavioral/developmental disabilities because ESNJ provides a variety of services with little to no cost to the individuals served. What sets ESNJ apart, however, are the intangibles. The dedicated staff with this agency go above and beyond for the people they serve. For example, many of the individuals within their housing programs are on a fixed income from social security. Their fees are income based but the cost of living is so high in New Jersey that the money saved living in an Easter Seals home is negated by the cost of groceries and other necessities. The staff (from the CMs to the Administrators) arranged to have the Division of Welfare come to their homes to sign them up for benefits. This gives the people being served a supplemental income and helps those who cannot wait hours in the welfare offices. As a Behavioral Health professional, Easter Seals has showed continous dedication to the individuals they serve and I have had nothing but positive experiences with them.
i have a wife who works at easter seals and they are understanding as to client needs but there is a lack of control with the clients and this should be done more closely
i was working at Camp Merry Heart in 1988, the year my Dutch Soccer Team won the European Cup. However, what stays in my memory is not that victory, but the victory of Camp Merry Heart. Supported by the Easter Seals New Jersey. This victory compromises the joy of handicaped people that i saw on their faces. Campers who for one week felt special and rose above themselves. All this due to the work of the Easter Seal society. The warm hearts of the people of ESNJ is something that i will never forget and carry with me till today and in the future!! Easter Seal made it possible for the blind man to drive a bike. A wish he had for years, they made it possible for somebody who dare not swim to get over the fear and have a swim every day, probably till the day of today. They gave the participating people the opportunity to be equal, because in Camp Merry Heart everybody is equal, a thing that is not always like that in the outside camp world. We went hiking with them, a special thing for people who barely saw woods in their lives. we went kanoeing with the dissabled, a form of recreation that demands manpower that many organisations cannot supply. Easter Seals Did supply that manpower, by organising this camp. fundraising for it and on some days even participating in it with their members. CHEERIO in capitals for this organisation! an example to the world, and surely a lifetime example for me!! kind regards, Joost van der Loo Volunteer CMH 1998 The Netherlands.
My grandchild has been involved w/the Easter Seals day care program and has grown mentally as well as emotionally since beginning. They have have functions where family may attend and it is always handled professionally and is always run professionally yet made enjoyable for all that attend. Those involved i.e. staff, board members, etc, are always eager to help you and provide answers to all of your questions. Over this program has been a blessing for my grandson as well as our family! (review entered by GreatNonprofits staff member from paper review on behalf of reviewer)
This facility has provide our son an opportunity to become more independent. Also the activities offer by this facility provides my son with great experiences in the community like voluntering in the Elijah's Promise Kitchen, bowling trip, getting to visit different Museums as well as different important sights in the community. I thank Easter Seal of Edison for giving the opportunity to our son rene to grow emotionally as well as socially.
Our daughter a Downs Syndrome young adult, started Easter Seals over 10 years ago & all of us have never regretted this decision to go there & to stay there. Our daughter has grown so much since attending Easter Seals. She has taught herself with the help of staff memebers, to learn how to sign. She now signs with the clents that are deaf at Esater Seals. She looks forward everyday to go to Easter Seals, to go out into the community, nursing homes, library, etc. She also enjoys all the fun activities that they do. Without this program our daughter would become stagnated & go backwards. She is with her peers everyday & keeps going forward & thats what we want for her.
Thank god for Easter Seals day program. My 44yr old daughter attends the day program. If not for this program she would be sitting home doing nothing. She is with her peers and out in the community. She volunteers at different sites. She needs understand and patience because of her OCD. The staff is very caring and knows just how to handle her without her getting upset. She has attended Easter Seals for many many years and it has helped so much. She was in other programs before this but couldn't keep up with it. So thank you Easter Seals.