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Child Development Resources' goal: all children, no matter what the challenges, can reach their full potential.
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Fifty years ago, public school for all wasn’t a given. Preschool wasn’t the trend it is today.
If your child didn’t fit into a cookie-cutter mold—say she used a wheelchair, or he had some kind of learning disability—a quality education might have seemed out of reach.
So in 1965, a group of parents and volunteers started a school of their own. They had just five students when the Williamsburg Preschool for Special Children opened.
“They had a vision,” says Paul Scott, executive director for Child Development Resources, a community organization dedicated to helping the community’s youngest and most vulnerable members. “They wanted their kids to have what other kids had."
The goal, since day one, has been simple: all children, no matter what the challenges, can reach their full potential. “We look at children as all being special,” Scott says. “It’s our job to draw that out.”
Last September, CDR kicked off its fiftieth year with the heartwarming knowledge that the agency is now serving some 1,000 families a year in the Williamsburg area.
CDR serves children in a variety of ways, offering services targeted for children and families who face all kinds of challenges: developmental delays, disabilities, homelessness.
Every child in Williamsburg, James City County, York County, and Poquoson is eligible for free developmental screenings from birth until the age of three. Children who meet the eligibility requirements—including having an identified developmental delay or disability, or being considered at-risk because of certain living conditions —can receive services. Services range from child care and prenatal advice to health screenings and parenting classes.
CDR also offers national training for early childhood professionals and runs Early Head Start and Smart Beginnings Historic Triangle, a coalition of community advocates who work to ensure all children in the area are prepared for kindergarten. In addition, it operates TOTS Line, (757-566-TOTS) a hotline for parents who have questions about where to get help.
The agency’s best known program is the Infant and Parent Program, which provides individualized physical, occupational, and speech therapy, and special education during home visits and specialized playgroups. Ninety percent of CDR’s services are provided right at home.
Williamsburg parents Britta and David Marmon were still in the hospital with their newborn baby three years ago when hospital staff suggested they get in touch with CDR. Within weeks, therapists were at the Marmon’s home, evaluating their daughter, Maddox, who has Down syndrome.
Speech and occupational therapists worked with Maddox weekly, helping her get ready to attend school at the same level as other children her age. And last fall, at age two and a half, she began going to preschool.
“We were so grateful for their presence,” she says. “There were so many things we did with Maddox because of the guidance of her therapists. If we didn’t have the information they gave to us, I don’t know if she’d be as far along as she is today.”
Children “age out” of the program at three years of age. But family members often stay active, taking part in the fundraising events CDR does each year, including its huge annual auction in the spring and a 5K superhero-themed race in August.
CDR operates through a combination of federal, state, and local funding. Over the years, its enrollment has increased steadily while state and federal funding has remained low, making community support important, Scott says. So to help celebrate the agency’s fiftieth anniversary, CDR set a fundraising goal of $1 million, to be raised by the end of this year.
Child Development Resources, 150 Point O'Woods Rd., Williamsburg, VA 23188, 757-566-3300. For more information, visit cdr.org.