DLC NURSE & LEARN INC

DLC consistently reaches and surpasses goals set for showing program success annually. We serve 100 or more students and their families each year, on average 50 students birth to 6 years of age in inclusion preschool and 45 students from 3-22 years in extended day enrichment programs as well as 8 weeks of summer camp. DLC provides tuition assistance scholarships to at least 30 families and free therapy services to at least 20 students each month. Over 95% of parents are able to find and maintain jobs or enroll in college courses. Students each receive between 3 and 6 individualized goals per school year and 90% of students accomplish at least one goal and improve on 95% or more of goals over the same school year. 70% or more of our preschool students that start out with developmental delay, reach average age development before graduation. Our parent survey always rates 95%-99% satisfaction on all services provided at DLC.

DLC has always listened to the needs of the special needs community and filled gaps in services since our inception. There was no one in Jacksonville providing child care or after school care for children with special needs, so DLC opened its doors and extended hours for working families and programming is year-round. Other special needs programs didn’t have nurses, so children with medically complex situations were forced to stay at home, so DLC hired nursing staff. No one was providing programming for special needs infants to three-year olds, so DLC provides that programming as well. For parents working full time and who struggle with taking time off for therapy appointments, DLC has licensed therapist staff onsite. They work in the classrooms so that teachers and parents can observe and learn how to duplicate activities for maximum impact. Therapy services are not available to those that are underinsured and many insurances are not covering therapy that severely disabled children need so DLC started the Shared Therapy Program, writing for grant dollars and seeking out donations to supplement this service, in order for children to receive the intervention they are prescribed. When amendments were made to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, it encouraged inclusion of all children in programs, so DLC allowed children of all abilities access to our programs. Since 2003, DLC has enrolled children with and without disabilities in our programs and promote youth volunteers from the community to work with our older students after school and during summer camp in an effort to honor the spirit of the IDEA. As many of our families have been unable to secure full time jobs, DLC has offered scholarships for families as they rebuild after the birth of a child (or children) with a developmental delay.

Since opening in 1989, we have provided over $4,000,000 in DLC tuition and therapy to families, giving them help until they become self-sufficient with full time work and medical insurance. We also started offering free mental health counseling to our parents and caregivers in 2015. Seeing the stress and depression that many of our parent’s face, we were compelled to provide this service for anyone in our program that wants help. We have a licensed psychologist that comes at least once a month to our center for the parent’s convenience. These services we offer, strengthen the entire family, giving children a stable home environment that will give them an even better chance for overcoming their disabilities and reaching success as independent adults.

In our 30 years, DLC is continually recognized as a pillar in the Jacksonville Community for our work providing quality services to children with developmental disabilities and for family support, access to therapy services, free counseling and resources to help strengthen the financial stability of the families they serve. DLC continues to be rated a “5 Star Center” from the Guiding Stars Program of Duval County since 2011, and has received various awards due to the success of the program and the dedication from Teachers, Teacher Assistants, Nurses, Therapists, Volunteers, Administrative Staff and their Founder and CEO, Mrs. Amy Buggle. DLC received the “Top Rated Nonprofit” for 2018, and received a certificate from GreatNonprofits.org, which was awarded to DLC due to repeated positive feedback and 5-star ratings from the community. DLC Nurse & Learn was also recognized by the Florida Blue Foundation as a Sapphire Award recipient in Kissimmee Florida, distinguishing excellence and innovation in community health. This is the second Sapphire Award that DLC has been awarded. DLC has also received the “Gifts of Service” award from the Child Development Education Alliance in 2011 and 2014, is a former IMPACT grantee and was a runner up in the category of Education during One Spark 2015 for the effective implementation of the Shared Therapy Program. In 2016 DLC's Executive Director, Amy Buggle, received the American Graduate Award from WJCT for committing her time, skills and resources to helping young people succeed. Mrs. Buggle also received the Sherwood Smith Award for her 25+ years of service benefiting the children of Jacksonville, was a finalist for the EVE AWARD in the area of education and was also a finalist for the Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women Award for the positive difference DLC has made for families in Jacksonville.

Children with developmental disabilities and special needs require many different services to be successful. With so many various necessities to assure quality programming for children with diverse physical, cognitive, medical and behavioral disabilities, DLC has learned over the years how to best showcase our unique program. Rather than just document daily attendance in a therapeutic program, we have a process to document each specialized service that every student receives daily. This was created several years ago to easily document the units of service that children with multiple handicaps require. From education activities, to nursing care, to therapy sessions, to personal care and working on individualized goals, each specific service is documented daily by staff and reported monthly and documented electronically. We hope that our program can be duplicated in other parts of the country with the programming solutions we have learned over the years.