The Howard County Children’s Center celebrated 40 years of service on Wednesday, October 12th with a Chamber of Commerce Coffee and tours of the Liz Bell Learning Center – 1577 Hwy 371 West – Nashville AR. The Center has 105 developmentally disabled adult clients, twenty-five developmentally delayed children, and fifty-five day care children ranging in age from 2 months to 65 years.
In 1971, the Howard County Children’s Center opened its doors with twelve students, two teachers and one aide. It took five months of intense planning for this dream to become a reality. It was to be the beginning of an odyssey that would grow to provide training, education and work experiences for hundreds of developmentally disabled children and adults from the surrounding area. Liz Backus Bell and Ruth Foltz were the teachers accompanied by their aide, Dot Porterfield.
Services are offered in the areas of Adult Development, Adult Work Programs, Adult Residential Program, Transporation and Developmental Day Program for Children.
Tuesday, June 7 – A new recycling center located at the Millwood State Park and Yarborough Landing, operated by the Howard County Children’s Center, opened on June 7. According to HCCC Assistant Director Rose Ray the expansion now extends the recycling center to Little River County with the help of a grant from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality in the amount of $22,000. With grant funding HCCC has built a drop-off collection for newspapers and cardboard. Ray says it will reduce waste and provide more work/income for clients at the Children’s Center. She says the center already makes collections from businesses and schools in several other area counties. The center’s office waste and electronic recycling has seen a large increase in volume.