KINDERING CENTER
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Mission Statement
Kindering, founded by five parents of children with disabilities in 1962, is now one of the Northwest’s largest and most comprehensive non-profit neurodevelopmental centers. This past year, Kindering served about 8,000 children and families through direct services, consultations, and trainings. Thanks to our advocacy and systems work, we also supported care for thousands more. Our direct services include pediatric therapies, special education, early learning, and parent coaching. Our mission is to “embrace children of diverse abilities and their families by providing the finest education and therapies to nurture hope, courage and the skills to soar,” and our vision is “an equitable world where people of all abilities, identities and backgrounds belong and thrive.” We are committed to eradicating systemic racial and oppressive barriers so everyone at Kindering feels a sense of belonging -- including the families we serve and the staff who make our mission possible. To make this a reality we embed equity in all our work. As an agency, we recognize the importance of social-emotional safety and are certified as a Trauma-Informed CARE Organization by Snohomish County. Our Accessibility, Equity, and Inclusion Team has integrated the work of healing-centered engagement as a foundation for building a Race Equity Culture throughout Kindering. We also work to break down barriers to help families to find and engage in services. No family is ever turned away for financial reasons. In addition, while most of our services are home-based, we can also serve families wherever they are – a home, community center, child care facility, or Kindering campus. To ensure access for our families who speak 50+ languages, we deliver high-demand services in Spanish and have a growing number of staff who are fluent in ~20 top languages, such as Chinese, Hindi and Arabic. We also conduct targeted outreach to communities facing barriers to care, such as families with non-English home languages, experiencing poverty or dealing with housing insecurity. Our outreach efforts, conducted in both English and Spanish, are bolstered by collaborations with various community partners, many of which focus on culturally, ethnically, or linguistically specific populations. We are also growing capacity for outreach in communities that speak Asian languages through training community healthcare workers as autism specialists.
About This Cause
Kindering’s programs and services work together to help children (birth to 11) of diverse abilities reach their fullest potential. We help children with disabilities, developmental delays, and risk factors achieve important developmental milestones, narrowing or even closing knowledge and skills gaps with their typically-developing peers. Our largest program is our early support (aka, “early intervention) direct service program for infants and toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities. Early support services, which are delivered on a one-on-one basis, include developmental evaluations; occupational, speech, feeding, and infant mental health therapies; parent coaching, case management, and connection to resources. These services help children learn foundational skills, such as how to communicate, get around, and get the nutrition they need to thrive. The birth to three age range presents a unique window of opportunity for neurodevelopment when 85% of brain growth occurs. The following outcomes for children graduating our early support program at age 3 hold true across the diverse range of social-economic conditions, races, and ethnicities represented by the children we serve: > 58% who enter below developmental age expectations substantially increased their rate of growth by exit. > 94% of parents report Kindering therapy staff were aware of and sensitive to their home culture. > 77% of parents report improvement in their skills and confidence in meeting their child's needs. > Kindering saves local schools over $50 million/year in special education costs. Kindering also offers highly effective, innovative programs to develop protective factors for children most at risk of developmental delay, including children whose families are homeless, foster families, and English language learners. We also recognize the importance of working at scale in partnership with other service providers, and hence we also train and support other early support providers across the state, as well as preschool and child care providers in King County. Kindering has earned numerous awards for its work, including Neurodevelopmental Center of Excellence (WA State Department of Health), Center of Excellence for Autism Spectrum Diagnosis (WA State Healthcare Authority), 2019 Washingtonian of the Year (Office of the Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib), 2018 Nonprofit of the Year Community Impact Award (Seattle Business Magazine), GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency, Best Workplace awards and ParentMap Golden Teddy Awards (special needs resource).