SALISBURY — “We want everybody to feel like they’re a part of this,” said Norma Honeycutt, executive director of Partners In Learning, as she spoke about the capital campaign they have begun, using the theme of Rooted in Growth, United As One. The campaign is $6 million; however, they’re already at $4.1 million and she said, “So we’re ready to go public and say, OK, get us to the finish line.” The Woods facility is two years old this month, said Honeycutt, and they had raised $12 million and built the facility and thought they were finished.

“God had different plans,” she said. The nonprofit organization has another site on Best Street that they lease from Novant Health, who was running a childcare center there and approached Partners In Learning about taking it over, noting that it wasn’t their particular expertise. After much thought and lots of prayers, they did and have been running it for nine years. And while the center has been in operation for that many years, she said the building was close to 30 years old. Honeycutt said that Novant had been a great partner and amazing to do all the repairs and upkeep for free all these years; however, it needed “a lot of capital to bring it up where it needs to be to meet today’s standard, for health and safety and lots of reasons.”

Looking at the amount of money it would take to do this, the two groups met and after thinking through each financial situation, Partners In Learning decided that they have their facility and the children at the Best Street site could come enjoy the Adventure Forest and clinic at The Woods. “It was the perfect solution, and the board voted in the spring to go ahead and build on enough classrooms to accommodate bringing those children to The Woods,” said Honeycutt. Eighty-eight children from the Best Street location will be transitioning to The Woods, said Honeycutt, and therefore, the decision was made to add six classrooms to their existing 11, giving them a total of 17 classrooms and would be licensed for 260 children. Plus, she said, they realized that within the clinic, their children receiving Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services, which is a loud service, and those receiving counseling, a quiet one, were using the same space, and they decided to add a devoted mental health area, which will consist of five therapy rooms with two being educational serving as a training area for other therapists.

Currently, they have 164 children at the facility and Honeycutt said they are the only center in North Carolina to provide early learning, childcare and clinical services all under one roof. “We are very unique,” she said. “We are changing the landscape for early learning.” Heather Fidler, who serves as the early learning director at The Woods, said she has approximately 40 staff members that she supervises, which includes teacher, kitchen and maintenance. At the Best Street location there are nearly 20 who will all be coming as there will be classrooms for them to take over. The clinic has approximately 40 staff members, said Cassie Karriker, the clinical services director, and with this addition being made and the number of children enrolled going up, she said, “that will also give us more opportunities to serve more children in our ABA clinic as well. It’s also going to give us more opportunities to help children with special needs too, because when you add more children, there’s more opportunities for more children with special needs.” Honeycutt shared that of those children attending, 45 percent have a diagnosed special need with the remaining 55 percent being typical children, and they come from all walks of life.

As for when the transition will occur, Honeycutt said that it is extremely aggressive as they are currently working with the architect and by February 2026 the bidding and contract negotiations would start. By March, they anticipate the construction phase to begin with March 2027 expected to be the completion date on the timeline. “The hope is that once construction starts, it will be a year-long project and we will be able to bring everybody” said Katelin Rice, development director. “So if all goes to plan, this will move pretty quickly.” And while Honeycutt said there might be a day or two where they may have to close, she added that’s a worst case scenario.  The expectation, said Fidler, is to have minimal interruption, adding that “a lot of things have already preemptively been done that will not require too much and probably any interruption here, so that’s a huge benefit.” Those wishing to help them reach their goal and donate may visit their campaign website at https://epartnersinlearning.org/ext-capital-campaign/ A breakdown of the various levels of giving plus are provided at the site.

Having just recently completed their building, Rice said she wanted the community to understand the need for this campaign. “It’s so important that all of our children have access to this beautiful facility and we are able to move forward as an organization, so I think if I can stress anything, it’s that I want the community to understand and feel the passion for this place that we do and I think education is key here.” Before she had the opportunity to join them at Partners In Learning, Rice said she didn’t fully realize all of the services that they offered and the inclusivity. By having all the children together, those with and without special needs, she said, “is such a beautiful thing. Those are the type of adults that we want to raise. We’re creating compassion and understanding and that’s from both sides.”  She said they learn from each other and she is now more excited and passionate about her role and wants to make sure that everyone else “knows this is here and we have this and we are a resource and we are here to help.” Their first campaign was during COVID, said Honeycutt, and they reached it. Now, she said she has had people tell her that things are unstable, and these are bad economic times, but, she said, “I have no doubt the community will rise up and help again.” Noting the childcare crisis and the loss of the sustainability grant funds, Honeycutt said sustainability is so important and “by bringing the other site here, it’s going to help us with sustainability. It’s going to lower the cost.

It will lower the cost from everything from utilities to staffing, because we’re able to blend a lot of that. It is also going to allow us, when we raise all of this money and as a nonprofit, we don’t have a payment, a building payment. It gives us the opportunity to expand our clinic and our clinic helps us diversify our money because what they bring in helps offset the cost of childcare.” She added that she wants the community to understand that they are talking about “bringing, maintaining and sustaining childcare that’s an economic driver because without it, parents can’t work.” Honeycutt said her vision is more people get that opportunity, and it could be $1, “but we want everybody to feel like they’re a part of this” as they hope everyone will “have a little piece of Partners In Learning.” A tour showed the areas where the additions would go including classrooms near the Adventure Forest and at the end of the hallway of the early learning center. The mental health wing would be added at the side of the current clinic area. When they started this, said Karriker, they had a plan.  “We wanted to bring ABA to Rowan County, we wanted to have mental health services more accessible, and we’ve done that, but there’s more work to be done for the kids and the families in our community and so I think building on the mental health wing is going to open up so many opportunities and adding on the classrooms is going to open so many more opportunities for us to do more good work. Your child should be receiving this quality of care and so I think that’s kind of what I want people to understand that there’s more work to be done and everybody can be involved in some way.” In addition to the new classrooms and wing, they will get a second sensory room. “Because we can only allow three children in here at a time, and we’ve grown so much that children need it,” said Karriker. “They love it.” Celia Jarrett, who serves as the Partners In Learning board chairs, said “we recognize that having all of Partners In Learning’s services together in one facility guarantees high standard of care to all children and families seeking services. The need for quality childcare and mental health services in Rowan County is great and I’m proud that Partners is rising up to meet that need. I learned an important lesson from my mother, Dr. Shirley Ritchie, when she worked to establish Partners In Learning over 30 years ago, and that is, when you recognize a need, and have a just, and righteous cause, you will not have to do it alone, this community will step up and meet you there. I take great pride in living in this community.”