Easter Seals Welcomes Life Skills to its Nationwide Network of Service Providers

St. Louis -based not-for-profit Life Skills joins Easter Seals to better serve the needs of people with disabilities across the state of Missouri

CHICAGO, Aug. 27, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On September 1, Easter Seals welcomes Life Skills, based in St. Louis, Mo., to its nationwide network of affiliates providing services and supports for people living with disabilities.  Life Skills, a not-for-profit organization, has served individuals with developmental disabilities throughout Missouri since 1964. With services offered through three agency divisions: Autism Spectrum Disorder services, community living and employment services, Life Skills is now Easter Seals' affiliate in Missouri.

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"We are delighted to welcome Life Skills to our Easter Seals family," said James E. Williams, Jr., Easter Seals president and Chief Executive Officer. "Given our shared missions and service offerings, and Life Skills' outstanding record for meeting the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families throughout the state of Missouri, we know this partnership is a natural fit."

Life Skills currently serves 5,000 people with disabilities. Joining Easter Seals, Life Skills will become part of a nearly century long commitment to helping individuals and families living with disabilities.  Easter Seals Life Skills will share in a network of over 70 affiliates across the United State and Australia, with global partners in Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico, currently offering help, hope and answers to more than 1.5 million children and adults with disabilities and their families. 

"Life Skills and Easter Seals share a grassroots legacy," said Life Skills CEO Wendy Sullivan.  "Each was founded by parents with the goal of creating a better future for people living with disabilities.  By affiliating with such an association, our team will have access to deep resources in programming, advocacy, fundraising and marketing – all of which will be leveraged to benefit those we serve.  We see this as a win-win for individuals with developmental disabilities and for our community.

"With access to best practices in the industry, advocacy at the federal level, and the ability to raise much-needed funding for services leveraged with Life Skills' strengths, we will have the opportunity to both improve and expand our services to individuals with developmental disabilities and communities we serve," said Sullivan.

Life Skills merged with TouchPoint Autism Services in 2012.  This affiliation with Easter Seals is the next step in reaching its strategic goals to help more individuals with developmental disabilities across Missouri.

About Easter Seals
Easter Seals is the leading non-profit provider of services for individuals with autism, developmental disabilities, physical disabilities and other special needs. For more than 90 years, Easter Seals has been offering help and hope to children and adults living with disabilities, and to the families who love them. Easter Seals also has provided critical community-based supports and services to military service members, veterans and their families since World War II. Through therapy, training, education and support services, Easter Seals creates life-changing solutions so that people with disabilities and military families can live, learn, work and play. Support children and adults with disabilities at www.easterseals.com.  

About Easter Seals Life Skills
Life Skills, a United Way agency, helps individuals with developmental disabilities – including autism – learn, live, work and participate in the community.  The agency currently employs more than 1,300 statewide, and has an operating budget of approximately $40 million as it serves more than 4,200 individuals in Missouri through three specific divisions: Community Living, Employment Services and TouchPoint Autism Services. For more information, visit www.lifeskills-mo.org.

SOURCE Easter Seals