For months, Mary had waited to get her 3-year-old son, Liam, into consistent child care. Every center where she applied was full or wasn’t willing or able to address Liam’s behavioral struggles.
Mary and her husband worked full-time jobs. They could feel the pressure building each time they had to rely on their families to help with child care.
“There’s some language issues there,” Mary says of her son’s developmental problems. “It was just hard, because when you can’t communicate, the only thing you can do is act out. We couldn’t find a place that would accommodate that.”
Then Mary received a call. Thanks in part to an Innovation Grant from Every Child Has Opportunities, WeeConnect Early Learning Center in York was about to more than triple in size. Mary’s son finally would have a place to go for child care.
Preparing children for the next step
WeeConnect isn’t just any child care center. It is the first in Southcentral Pennsylvania to offer inclusive, high-quality care and education for children of all abilities, including those with atypical development.
The center emphasizes the creation of a nurturing and supportive environment where every child feels a sense of belonging. WeeConnect integrates children with diverse needs and backgrounds into its programs, helping them learn and thrive alongside their peers.
“It’s not just a place to park your kid while you’re at work,” Mary says. “He’s actually going to get an education and thrive and learn what he needs to be able to incorporate himself when he goes to school.”
The cost of creating a nurturing environment
When WeeConnect founders Rande Fregm and Liz Jones, who have backgrounds in early intervention, began looking into expanding their early learning center, they knew they wanted to offer indoor and outdoor multisensory spaces to increase services for children with sensory sensitivities.
There was only one problem: the cost.
To create spaces tailored for those with sensory stimulation issues, they would need tens of thousands of dollars on top of the funds they were putting into expanding the facility. They decided to move ahead with a classroom expansion and hold off on completing the multisensory spaces.
Then they learned about ECHO Innovation Grants, which support projects aimed at widening access to high-quality early childhood education for low-income children and families. Grants focus on strengthening the local education ecosystem, increasing capacity, improving quality of care, and attracting and retaining qualified educators.
“I knew when they said that they were looking for innovation that we had the perfect idea,” Rande says.
Making the dream come true
WeeConnect’s multisensory spaces were exactly the type of project that the grant program funds. Within a few months of applying, Rande and Liz received the full $50,000 they had sought and were able to create indoor and outdoor multisensory spaces.
“The multisensory space is important because a lot of the kids that find us here are having behaviors that challenge adults. They’re having difficulty with their own self-regulation,” Liz says. “The sensory equipment and the acoustic equipment and the bubble towers and all of those things do help when a child doesn’t have the ability to regulate themselves.”
WeeConnect grew from serving nine students to more than 30 and brought on three more teachers. In November 2024, the center held a juice box toast and ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially mark the opening of the expanded facility.
While the center’s waiting list is long, it was able to welcome many families who had been seeking the proper care for months, including Liam and his parents.
“We are super duper grateful for ECHO,” Rande says. “It has been able to allow us to make the dream come true even so much quicker and put it in place from the day the doors open, which will only enhance our ability to provide care.”
There’s still more work to be done as child care waiting lists grow and children such as Liam look forward to quality care. The ECHO team is seeking organizations and individuals to help expand child care to low-income families throughout York County.
Every Child Has Opportunities (ECHO) is an early childhood education initiative in York County, Pennsylvania, led by Community Connections for Children and York County Economic Alliance. Funding partners include WellSpan Health, J. William Warehime Foundation, Powder Mill Foundation, United Way of York County, The Kinsley Foundation, and York County Community Foundation.