Mission of Northwest’s Child Inc.

Northwest’s Child was established in 1989 when it was discovered that there were no programs that existed to serve the exclusive and crucial needs of children and teens with severe disabilities when they became older and/or their needs more involved. On June 10th, of 1991, the doors of Northwest’s Child opened to serve 12-13 school aged children between the ages of 7 years & 21 years old.

Our program serves as an extension to each school day, offering continued education, vocational skills, social skills and community integration for each student regardless of the severity of their disabilities. During “out of school” days, we serve as a full day program offering all of the above services as well as a strong community based experience.

The families of our students are most often low income and/or single parents. Our program provides a strong advocacy resource for them and provides any and all services and support they might need to access the best for their children /teen with special needs. We also offer a sliding scale fee and contract with multiple DSHS departments in order to obtain the most subsidies available to take the place of out of pocket costs to the families.

Northwest’s Child is a year round program and continues to be the only program of it’s kind in Western Washington. Currently there are two school aged sites; Seattle & Lynnwood.

In 2004, Northwest’s Child opened another first-of-a-kind program. This program would be the first adult day program for recent high school graduates(age 21) and other young adults with severe/profound disabilities 5 days a week, year round. This program would offer not only continued attention and work on each students’ individual goals but also serve as a one-on-one service so that that each student can work with local merchants & businesses as a truly active contributing member of their community. Each adult student goes to job sites as a volunteer or very part time employee along with a support staff to ensure their safety and assist them in any tasks not yet mastered. Other times of the day, the staff & students can be found swimming, going to lunch, the movies or just enjoying the sites and sounds of the surrounding area.

We are anticipating the opening of a second adult program on the east side in the very near future. This new site is due to open in the fall of 2006.