Easter Seal Society of Dade County, Inc.

The Easter Seal Society of Dade County is a private, non -profit, voluntary health agency providing comprehensive rehabilitation and education services for physically and learning-disabled children and adults regardless of age, sex, race, religion or nation of origin. All disabled persons are eligible for services. The mission of the society is to help people with disabilities achieve maximum independence. Founded in Dade County in 1942, the county chapter has become the largest Easter Seal Society in the southeastern United States. The Society offers several programs for people of all ages with disabilities including:

• Early Intervention Program and the Demonstration School provides children from birth through 14 years of age the therapeutic and educational instruction necessary to achieve maximum independence, as well as individual counseling for parents.
• Outpatient Medical Rehabilitation provides children and adults with physical, occupational, speech/language and pool therapies.
• Vocational Services provides job training and placement to learning and/or physically impaired individuals, as well as alcohol and drug addicted adults. The Vocational Services Department operates eight programs that are designed to help disabled individuals maximize their ability to function independently.

  OCCUPATIONAL TRAINING CENTERS (OTC)
  The Vocational Services Department, in cooperation with Dade County Public Schools, provides Trainable Mentally Handicapped (TMH)-students with the opportunity for employment through its Occupational Training Centers Program (OTC). We provide the OTC Program with six job coaches who place, train and monitor assigned students from Brownsville, Citrus Grove, Cutler Ridge, Hialeah, Riviera and Thomas Jefferson Middle Schools as well as Homestead, Miami Springs, American and Miami Senior High Schools. After graduation, these students transition into our adult supported employment program.

  SUPPORTED EMPLOYMENT
  The Vocational Services Department has two adult supported employment programs. We have a Phase I program with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and a Phase II program with the Department of Children & Family Services. In Phase I, Vocational Rehabilitation clients are assigned to an Easter Seal Society job coach who is responsible for placing them into community based jobs, training them to do the jobs at the work sites and then providing them with support services for 150 days after stabilization. Once stabilized the clients transition into our Phase II program. In Phase II, Children & Family Services clients are assigned to an Easter Seal Society job coach who provides them with ongoing support services for an indefinite period of time.

  JOB PLACEMENT
  The Vocational Services Department also has two job placement programs with the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. These programs differ from the supported employment programs in the intensity and duration of services.

  PIC
  The Vocational Services Department has two programs with the Private Industry Council.

  PIC II-A
  The PIC II-A program provides disabled adults with a Case Manager who is responsible for enrolling them into on the job training or career oriented classes and then placing them into community based, unsubsidized employment.

  PIC II-C (Culinary Arts)
  The PIC II-C program provides disabled Dade County Public School students with job preparation training and job placement. The focus of the program is to provide high school students with practical skills and knowledge related to the food service industry. Students will also receive the necessary course work required for graduation with a special diploma.

  SUPPORTED LIVING
  The Vocational Services Department provides clients of Children & Family Services with a Supported Living Coach who finds them safe, clean places to live, helps them shop and teaches them to function as independently as possible.

• Culinary Arts program combines efforts between the Education and Vocational Services departments, and provides opportunities for at-risk teens by offering academics and career training in restaurant-related skills in an on-site, fully equipped commercial kitchen.
• The Therapeutic Alzheimer's Program provides adult day care and in-home respite services to victims of Alzheimer's disease and other related disorders. These services delay the progress of these debilitating conditions and assist the families in developing coping mechanisms.
• Scoliosis Screening is provided to public and private junior high school students, in the hope that early detection will alleviate later suffering caused by this often-crippling condition.

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