Kindering

Kindering was founded in 1962 by five Bellevue, Washington-area mothers of children with disabilities. Today, Kindering is the largest early intervention center in the region – helping more than 1/3 of children ages 0-3 with disabilities in King County – and most robust in the range of services and expertise it provides.

We are the only center offering a full continuum of programs to meet the needs not only of children, but their parents, caregivers and siblings, too. As such we have a tremendous opportunity to affect the long-term outcomes for children with developmental disabilities and children with environmental risk factors in our community.

In 2012 Kindering served more than 3,300 children and their families, including developmental assessments; physical, speech, feeding, and mental health therapies; special education; toddler preschool; childcare consultation; foster/kinship care interventions; family counseling; and parent education.

While Kindering is most well-known for its early intervention services for children with developmental disabilities and delays, we have long had an umbrella of services for children at risk. Kindering has created and operates programs to effectively reach and serve at risk families and family members, including:

• Immigrant and Refugee Families: through the Parent-Child Home Program Kindering offers weekly home visit service to increase early childhood literacy and ensure children are ready for school on time;

• Foster and Kinship Families: social workers provide home visit interventions and support groups through our CHildren Encouraged by Relationships in Secure Homes (CHERISH) program;

• Homeless Families: early childhood educators travel to local transitional housing facilities to conduct developmental evaluations and provide services through our Early Intervention for Families in Transitional Housing program;

• Spanish-speaking Families: through our Integrated Spanish Programs we offer a full array of bilingual/bicultural services to Latino families, including early preschool, family co-op, therapies, counseling, and mothers and fathers support groups;

• Families with Young Children in Child Care: our Early Care and Education Consultation program offers trainings and support to nearly 150 King County child care centers;

• Siblings of Persons with Special Needs: Kindering houses the internationally recognized Sibling Support Project, founded by employee Don Meyer, to support siblings of people with special health, developmental or mental health concerns nationwide;

• Dads of Children with Special Needs: Kindering is the parent organization to the Washington State Fathers Network which operates programs for dads in King County and Washington State.

In 2012 Kindering’s Early Intervention program will provide services to nearly 1,600 children – the highest number of children we’ve ever served and a 60% increase from the number of children served just five years ago. Your generous car donation will be used to support vital program work at Kindering.