Goodwill Easterseals Miami Valley

Goodwill Easterseals Miami Valley is working for a day when all people with a disability or disadvantage have access to the support and services they need to live, learn, work and play with full inclusion in the life of their community.

To do this, GESMV is constantly evaluating needs in the community, providing new services and expanding existing services to help people with disabilities improve their quality of life. Infants, seniors and individuals in between, with physical, vision, hearing and learning disabilities as well as those with mental health challenges and economic disadvantages, are receiving support they need to thrive every day.

But the statistics say there are still people in need and so there is still much work to be done. This year GESMV strives to increase the number of individuals receiving services including reaching more children and seniors in need, helping prepare and place more individuals in need of employment in meaningful jobs, hiring more individuals with disabilities within the organization and providing critical support for veterans and individuals with mental health needs.

By 2020 GESMV will impact the lives of more than 21,000 individuals who might otherwise struggle through life or fall through the cracks. Here’s how:

We will engage in our community and create meaningful impact in our community by listening to stakeholders, responding to needs, and building relationships.

We will grow our financial capabilities, enhancing our mission through improving our financial position and strengthening our financial capacity.

We will increase and build our operational capabilities through a commitment to continuous improvement.

We will cultivate people, providing an environment of learning and growth by creating opportunities for people to become their best selves.

Community Engagement: Create meaningful impact in our community by listening to stakeholders, responding to needs, and building relationships.
1. Increase the number of people impacted by GESMV
2. Increase the long-term impact of our services on people’s lives.
3. Employ more people with disabilities agency-wide
4. Be a leader among non-profits in our communities
5. Increase the number of people donating their time, talents, and resources to GESMV.
6. Develop and implement a communication strategy to increase mission awareness
7. Work to continuously improve customer relationships
8. Evaluate the possible expansion of our current CRM software to evaluate its potential to play a larger role in case management/data management.

Financial Capabilities: Enhance our mission through improving our financial position and strengthening our financial capacity.
1. Increase agency revenue and net
2. Increase and diversify program service funding and improve net
3. Increase ability to raise funds through philanthropy
4. Manage employment-related costs

Operational Capabilities: Build our operational capabilities through a commitment to continuous improvement.
1. Improve work safety
2. Maintain and expand quality initiatives
3. Expand continuous improvement efforts
4. Expand the volume of retail donations
5. Expand our ability to provide credentialed occupational skills training programs in collaboration with educational institutions.
6. Draft a Strategic IT Plan that positions technology to support the agency’s growth initiatives, including exploration of a possible Enterprise Resource Planning system.
7. Improve business processes by utilizing technology and developing more effective data analytics.
8. Actively seek to improve effectiveness and eliminate waste
9. Be knowledgeable about trends impacting our communities and services

Cultivating People: Provide an environment of learning and growth by creating opportunities for people to become their best selves.
1. Be an employer of choice
2. Develop an intentional culture
3. Cultivate skills development, training and career advancement for those we serve internally and externally

GESMV provides assistance to children with learning difficulties, veterans searching for employment, individuals with mental illness and seniors seeking to maintain their quality of life. In fact, 87 cents of every dollar contributed helps support the more than 40 programs and services that support our neighbors with disabilities and disadvantages.

Since 1934, Goodwill has been serving people with disabilities in our community. In 1999, Goodwill Industries of the Miami Valley and Easter Seals West Central Ohio merged, combining Goodwill’s focus on putting people to work with Easter Seals’ focus on increased independence for people with disabilities. While Goodwill had typically served adults of working age who had employment barriers, Easterseals focused on helping people of all ages who have disabilities be more independent in all areas of their lives. Locally, the two organizations are now one, Goodwill Easterseals Miami Valley, with a single governing board and a single mission: to empower people with disabilities and other disadvantages to achieve independence and improve their quality of life. The organization serves people of all ages and ability levels.

Goodwill Easterseals Miami Valley is the only local agency that serves people with such a broad range of disabilities and disadvantage across the entire age spectrum. We serve thousands of people who fall through the vast cracks between government and social services systems.

Due to COVID-19, program adjustments were made so that even during a worldwide pandemic, Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley accomplished incredible results. The following are Goodwill Easterseals Miami Valley's agency highlights for 2020:
• Served 19,547 people with disabilities and other disadvantages in a 23-county area helping them achieve independence and improve their quality of life.
• Helped 117 adults with developmental disabilities obtain employment through the Job & Community Connections program.
• Assisted 2,087 people in gaining computer skills so that they could improve their opportunities for employment.
• Assisted 896 individuals apply for unemployment benefits when the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to close and thousands of people lost their jobs.
• Assisted 404 people throughout our service region, who needed medical items, such as wheelchairs and walkers, so they could live more independently.
• Provided broadcast of readings from national and local newspapers, magazines and books to 3,059 people with vision loss or other disabilities through the Radio Reading Service, helping them stay connected to their community.

It’s an impressive list, and we’re proud of how we are impacting lives every day in our service area. But we know there are still people who could benefit from the right training, a caring, supportive coach, equipment to make their life better or essential services to change the course of their path. We will continue to partner with other local organizations to help bring our services to those in need of a hand up. We will continue to practice financial responsibility and steward the resources were are given so that we can remain steadfast in our commitment and service. We will continue to be the nonprofit in the community that provided services for those might otherwise become a product of a failed system.