Together, they learn

A Raleigh nonprofit that serves children, especially those with special needs, hopes to raise its profile

RALEIGH -- On graduation day at Learning Together, Ethan Armah sang his young heart out.

"R! E! D! Red!" sang Ethan, 5, joining a hearty chorus of 20 classmates, teachers and relatives at the East Raleigh day center. "I can spell 'red!' Hey!"

Joyce Armah, Ethan's mother, credited her son's learning milestones to his year in a day program at the nonprofit agency.

"He came here and he wasn't talking well," she said at the early June event. "Now he is talking and spelling and reading. It's a very great school."

Like Ethan, about 60 percent of students at the day center have disabilities. Built on cutting-edge behavioral science and common-sense child-rearing practice, the center offers an average teacher-to-child ratio of 1-to-5, a top state rating as a day-care center and an intergenerational staff of teachers and caregivers. Only a few centers in the state offer similar services.

"We have children who have been in poverty, who have been in foster care, and we have children whose parents are quite financially secure, quite educated," said executive director Nell Barnes. "There's economic and cultural diversity and ethnic diversity. We have a very strong racial mix."

But Learning Together faces problems posed by policy and funding changes from local, state and federal agencies with which they work. Recent shifts in reimbursement policies cost the agency $120,000, or about 6 percent of its $1.87 million budget.

That's why Learning Together is out to raise its profile -- and additional money -- for its nationally certified day center and its sister services for preschoolers, including a community program that provides individual and group sessions for children with disabilities, and an initiative for youngsters who have serious social, emotional or behavioral problems.

"We will serve children who have some significant challenges that other programs aren't so quick to embrace," Barnes said.

Stephanie Fanjul, president of the N.C. Partnership for Children, called Learning Together a "unique model" for the practice of caring for children with disabilities alongside typical children.

"It's the way they address the mix of kids and the kids' needs," Fanjul said. "They have a long-standing good reputation in the community."

In operation since 1969, Learning Together focuses on children, but also reaches out to parents who can face a discouraging, confusing road when seeking the right care and education for children with disabilities.

Raleigh parent Erin O'Loughlin recalled that she was devastated when she and husband Colm learned that their son Marcus, now 3, had autism, a disorder marked by varying degrees of difficulty communicating and connecting with others.

"It pretty much felt like my life was over," she said.

The high energy and short attention span the O'Loughlins had noticed in Marcus went beyond typical levels, professionals told them. A summer enrolled in BEST Buddiez, part of the children's mental health initiative at Learning Together, offered classes for Erin and Colm and taught at least one important skill for Marcus.

"One of the huge, huge problems he had was anxiety," Erin O'Loughlin said. "It was very difficult to drop him off. They helped him a lot with that specific anxiety. It took a lot of patience and a lot of understanding to be able to work with him."

Marcus now attends the Mariposa School in Cary, armed with the measure of independence he needs to separate from his mother. And Erin has become an advocate for Learning Together and children with autism.

She tells community groups that she's learned to love Marcus "in the now and not obsess over what his future may or may not hold -- to see his strengths first, and not his weaknesses."