Achievement Centers for Children

IXL Childcare is a center providing early childhood education, including meeting the needs of children with disabilities.  

Amber Lathan has four children, including twin boys with autism. Josahd and Corean will be 2 this January.  “My family is battling to get by,” says Lathan. “I’m trying to balance the attention they need with the attention that my other two kids also need.”

Amber is a single mom, who moved here to complete her degree in nursing. “I don’t have much of a support system at all,” she says. “It’s just me and my kids. My mom lives an hour away and she’ll help when she can. I’ve been living off of my savings account which is dwindling and school money, so I’m balancing and budgeting and prioritizing and sacrificing to I can go to school and have a career.”

Josahd and Corean also receive speech, occupational and physical therapy through Achievement Centers.  And with the help of family support staff, they are on waiting lists for a home-based program and are being referred to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy.

IXL Childcare is a center providing early childhood education, including meeting the needs of children with disabilities.  They have the resources they need because of the Achievement Centers for Children and their Technical Assistance Program (TAP). TAP provides resource teachers who work with childcare providers in the community, like IXL, and support their ability to care for children with disabilities.

“The number of children that we’re serving below the poverty line is above 75%. On top of being below the poverty line, they have a child with a disability which can cost upwards of $30,000 per year for medical treatment, specialized services and therapy. These people are really in need of help, and when they can’t find childcare, they can’t work,” says Samantha Lengel, manager of grants and annual giving for Achievement Centers for Children.

Your donation to UBF makes it possible for Achievement Centers for Children to do more outreach to the community and provide services to children in need. “We are accepting of everybody,” says Sherry Burgin, IXL Administrator.  “As long as we have resources to help them, we’re open to all kids.”