Easterseals Northern California

Throughout 2024, esnorcal's early intervention (ei) program served over 1,400 families, helping children to close developmental gaps through individualized treatment plans that address delays in overall development, motor skills and language. Practitioners continued to help support families through coaching and education, as well as consulting with schools, childcare agencies and other service providers. Our ei programs serve children from birth to age 5 through our continued partnership with the numerous regional centers in northern california. We made great headway in continuing to identify the need for ei across the northernmost areas of esnorcal's region approaching the oregon border, including mendocino, shasta and humboldt counties. We maintain that recognizing delays early, being able to obtain an assessment, and moving children quickly into treatment is essential to helping them catch up during critical stages of development; by providing most of our ei services to bilingual and spanish-speaking families, our support was accessible to even more families.

In 2024, our kaleidoscope community adult program (kcap), which supports individuals ages 18 and up with intellectual and developmental disabilities, continued to provide its community-based programming in walnut creek and dublin, focusing on community integration, socialization and independent living skills development with a creative curriculum that's hailed as being both fun and educational. Critical programs like kaleidoscope offer participants opportunities for socialization and community integration, pre-employment training, leisure and recreation, and building skills in home and personal hygiene, money management, transportation, safety and self-advocacy. This past year, kaleidoscope celebrated 3 participants who are now living independently, utilizing paratransit to get to the program and have been thriving in their new living situations. Given the curriculum's focus on independent living skills, this was a major triumph. In 2024, kaleidoscope provided more than 9,000 hours of service to 50 participants, and grew its volunteer opportunities as part of its commitment to community integration and pre-vocational curriculum. Such opportunities included growing food at local community gardens, making treats for and tending to animals at local shelters, organizing donations and pricing merchandise at american cancer society shops. Such commitments offer participants a chance to explore a wide range of duties that can support future career paths, as well as foster strong interpersonal relationships. During the 2024 year, our respite program continued providing in-home and community-based respite care for children, teens and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (i/dd). Through this program, caregivers are able to wind down or fulfill other parts of their lives and bring a renewed energy and compassion to their caregiving; meanwhile, clients are able to socialize with a trusted and reliable practitioner who helps them be set up for success. The program saw tremendous growth in 2024 with a 100% increase in enrolled families. Over 7,000 hours of respite care were delivered to the 38 families in the program, with another large increase expected in 2025.