Opening Thoughts: A Thriving Easterseals Network | 2025 Annual Report

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A Message from Our Leadership

Across the country, Easterseals Affiliates are strengthening communities in ways that are both deeply personal and nationally significant. Families find support that allows them to stay together. Children access services that shape their development and future opportunities. Adults with disabilities, veterans, and older adults gain pathways to work, greater independence, and consistent stability. These outcomes are the result of a network built on local leadership and shared purpose. 

This year’s report reflects the strength of that model.

Collectively, the Easterseals network invested more than $2 billion in program services, demonstrating the scale of support delivered across communities nationwide. Financially, the network continues to show steady momentum, with revenue growing over the past three years and resources directed overwhelmingly toward programs that serve people and families directly. These indicators matter because they show something fundamental: the network is not only expanding its reach but doing so responsibly and sustainably.

At the same time, the environment in which we operate is evolving quickly. Workforce shortages, rising costs, and uncertainty in federal policy place increasing pressure on human services organizations. These conditions require discipline and innovation. 

Across Easterseals, Affiliates are responding by modernizing data systems, testing new service models, strengthening workforce pathways, and forming partnerships that expand access to care and opportunity.

The examples throughout this report illustrate what that progress looks like in practice. 

• Digital literacy programs are helping individuals gain the skills necessary to participate in today’s economy. 
• Workforce initiatives are connecting job seekers with training and employers. 
• Transportation partnerships are improving access to jobs, healthcare, and education. 
• Affiliates are also advancing new healthcare models that reward preventive care and coordinated services—approaches that improve outcomes while managing costs.

Equally important is the role of coordinated national advocacy. In a year marked by significant policy volatility, the Easterseals network worked together to protect the federal programs and civil rights protections that sustain services for millions of Americans. These efforts help ensure that people we serve continue to access the support they rely on every day.

This progress is the result of Affiliate teams. Each Affiliate brings local knowledge and credibility. The national structure adds shared infrastructure, partnerships, and influence—supporting faster response, shared learning, and solutions that can scale. 

The commitment of leaders, staff, volunteers, and partners shows up in outcomes every day—in people who are more independent, more employable, more connected to their communities.

The work ahead will require continued collaboration, innovation, and resolve. But the strength of this network, grounded in community leadership and united by a common mission, positions Easterseals to meet that moment.

Thank you for your partnership and for the work you do every day to advance opportunity, independence, and stability for people and families across the country.

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