2022 Goals
The Children’s Center strives to provide early intervention services for children with special needs to help unlock their potential and enable connection and engagement with the world around them.
Our focus in recent years has been on expanding access to specialized support by establishing campuses in rural locations, partnering with the Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers in Waterville, and expanding our primary location in Augusta where need has exceeded capacity for several years. In fact, all of our campuses have substantial waiting lists for both center-based and outpatient services. In the year ahead, we will maintain our focus on access expansion as we strive to support more vulnerable children and families in multiple counties. We’ll do so by:
- Maintaining intervention support throughout the remainder of the pandemic and during recovery. COVID-19 has disrupted “business as usual” for all of us. For our kids, that disruption means fewer services, which translates to delayed progress, which can impact a child’s quality of life long-term. We are dedicated to keeping the children we serve and the staff who work with them safe and to remaining innovative and persistent in our effort to maintain services in spite of facility closures.
- Breaking ground on our Augusta site expansion to address waiting lists for services in the Kennebec Valley, with anticipated opening in January of 2023. This expansion doubles the facility, enhances our therapeutic environment, and ends the wait for children and families in need of specialized interventions.
- Expanding our Waterville presence in partnership with the Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers. Initiated during the pandemic, this program is poised for growth as we invest in more space and more staff to meet growing demand.
- Building infrastructure to provide telehealth services to further our reach into rural areas where need for specialized services is high and access is low.
COVID has had a global impact on the Children’s Center, closing our doors at times, reducing our annual revenue, our number of FTEs and, most importantly, our ability to provide intervention services to children with special needs during the most opportune time in their development.
With the aid of payroll protection funds, we managed to navigate last fiscal year without a financial deficit. As COVID continues to run its course, we aim to remain nimble in service to the communities that rely on us and be good stewards of community kindness as we look toward a brighter, expanded future for children with special needs.
Giving Opportunities
With limited staff bandwidth and continuing unknowns about COVID-19’s impact on our communities, the Center is pausing typical event efforts this fiscal year. While our event schedule may have temporarily changed, the need for support remains and there are plenty of ways to pitch in! The current best uses of community and corporate kindness to the Center and those it serves are as follows:
- Pledge support of our expansion effort to help eliminate the waiting list for life-changing services in the Kennebec Valley. Multi-year pledges, one-time gifts, IRA RMDs and stock gifts welcomed! www.achampionineverychild.org
- Fund-a-need: donate to help provide therapy services not covered by MaineCare or other funding sources.
- Donate: unrestricted donations allow us to respond to the area of greatest need at any given time, which can include new therapy equipment, appliance replacement, classroom toys and materials, and so much more.
- Celebrate: honor or remember a loved one with a donation in their name.
- Establish your legacy with a planned gift.
