The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
The Fort Wayne line — Easterseals Arc from 1999, one regional body from 2025
The documented line: The Fort Wayne disability organization long known through Anthony Wayne Services' world took the Easterseals Arc of Northeast Indiana name in 1999 and kept an Allen County focus until 2020, by its own history page's account. In 2020 it merged with Angola-based RISE Inc. (Easterseals RISE); in 2021 with Columbia City-based Passages Inc. (Easterseals Passages); and as of January 2025 all three operate as Easterseals Northeast Indiana. A 2021 alignment agreement with Warsaw's Cardinal Services created a network parent, Easterseals Northern Indiana Inc. — renamed Easterseals Community Network in December 2025 as the network prepared an Ohio launch.
The gap, stated: The Fort Wayne organization's deeper roots — the mid-20th-century parent-founded schooling for children with intellectual disabilities from which the Arc movement grew locally — were not documented from a solid source; one low-quality web snippet's claim of a 1954 school founding is not carried. The entry stands on the verified 1999–2025 line until the Arc's own archives are read.
Sources:
- Easterseals Northeast Indiana, "Our History" (eastersealsnei.org) — Easterseals Arc since 1999; the 2020 RISE and 2021 Passages mergers; January 2025 unification; the Cardinal Services alignment and the December 2025 Community Network name.