Mission & Background
Acre Family Child Care provides a pathway for women to achieve economic independence by operating high quality child care businesses in their homes.
Acre Family provides care for nearly 400 children every day in a network of family child care homes. Acre Family staff visit the homes to monitor the quality of care, and offer family support services and early childhood training programs in multiple languages throughout the year.
Acre Family Child Care (AFCC) was founded in 1988 in response to two related economic and community development needs: jobs and child care. Acre Family Child Care provides training programs in English, Spanish, and Khmer that enable women to run licensed family child care businesses in their own homes. The program has an innovative ripple effect in the community: the family child care providers earn a living and are able to stay at home with their own young children; at the same time, they offer child care to the community so other parents may work or attend job training programs.
Thirty Years of Community Impact
- More than 15,000 children received child care services. Acre’s staff of child care specialists conduct over 1,500 visits/year to the family child care homes to ensure the children receive safe and developmentally-appropriate care.
- Over 500 women launched family child care businesses with Acre Family’s assistance. Additionally, AFCC offers workshops and classes for professional development and continued learning opportunities so educators stay knowledgeable about advances in early childhood education.
- Over $550,000 in small business loans were made to family child care providers to help buy educational supplies, make improvements to child care spaces, enroll in college courses, and more.
Recognition
- In 2006, Acre Family Child Care was selected by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care to participate in a longitudinal study of a new early literacy curriculum specifically for family child care providers called Learningames. Acre is training providers to use the curriculum in their program and providing monthly technical assistance visits to model the program with the children. Researchers periodically evaluate the children to assess the children’s early childhood development and readiness for kindergarten.
- Anita Moeller, Founding Director of Acre Family Child Care, was named the 2003 Massachusetts Home-Based Business Advocate by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
- Acre Family Child Care was awarded the Vision 2000 Model of Excellence Award from the United States Small Business Administration (SBA). The Administrator of the SBA, Aida Alvarez, visited Lowell to present the award to our staff and child care providers and referred to our program as “a model for the nation.”
- In 2016, AFCC has received the Agent of Change award from The Rotary Club of Nashoba Valley and the Best Entrepreneurship Program Focused on Women in a Mid-Sized City from EforAll.
- In 2019, Acre Family Child Care’s Co-Executive Directors, Zelma Khadar and Lucas Skorczeski received the 2019 Eastern Bank Community Advocacy Award in recognition of their work to enable women to achieve economic independence by running licensed family child care businesses in their own homes.
Staff
Administration
Zelma Lyons-Khadar, Co-Executive Director
Elizabeth Doherty, Director of Finance
Alcinda Baillargeon, Office Manager/Billing Specialist
Shaniece Custis, Contract Manager
Allison MacVarish, Grant Writer/Development Manager
Child Care and Professional Development
Lucas Skorczeski, Co-Executive Director
Isadora Chiribi, Social Worker
Daniela Paez, Training Coordinator
Angela Mendonca, Child Care Specialist
Emily Morales, Child Care Specialist
Bopha Tran, Child Care Specialist
Transportation
Sheila Primeau, Transportation Manager
Zoraida Cartagena, Driver
Celis Morkhantha, Driver
Caitlin Sanchez, Driver
Leishla Santiago, Driver
Holly Shepard, Driver
Maria Valdez, Driver
Celissa Zanders, Driver
Board of Directors
Officers
Donna Saati, Chair
Sr. Commercial Lending Compliance Reporting Specialist, VP, Enterprise Bank, Lowell, MA
Bethany Watson, Vice Chair
Executive Administrative Officer, Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union, Lowell, MA
Robert Cody, Treasurer
VP of Financial Analysis, Hanscom Federal Credit Union, Littleton, MA
MinJeong Kim, Clerk
Associate Professor, College of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA
Directors
Deb Beland
Senior Application Engineer AVP, Enterprise Bank, Lowell, MA
Isolda Cano
Family Child Care Provider, Acre Family Child Care, Lowell, MA
Larissa Gaias, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA
Kathleen Leon
Former V.P. and Controller of Courier Corporation, Chelmsford, MA
Valessa Marques
Family Child Care Provider, Acre Family Child Care, Lowell, MA
Darmery Montoya
Family Child Care Provider, Acre Family Child Care, Lowell, MA
Russell Olwell
Dean of Education & K-16 Partnerships, Middlesex Community College, Lowell, MA
Chris Ortiz
Founder and CEO, MCC INC., Tyngsboro, MA
Maria Pino
Family Child Care Provider, Acre Family Child Care, Lowell, MA
Maria Reyes
Family Child Care Provider, Acre Family Child Care, Lowell, MA
Daniel Rios
Financial Specialist, Hanscom Air Force Base, Hanscom AFB, MA
Vannak Theng
MLL Teacher, Lowell Public Schools, Lowell, MA
Acre Family Child Care Annual Reports
Our Annual Reports are available in PDF format for downloading.
(You may need PDF reading software to view the report. To get the official Adobe PDF Reader Software, visit https://get.adobe.com/reader/)
Download AFCC’s 2022 Annual Report
Download AFCC’s 2021 Annual Report
Download AFCC’s 2020 Annual Report
Download AFCC’s 2019 Annual Report
Download AFCC’s 2018 Annual Report
Download AFCC’s 2017 Annual Report
Download AFCC’s 2016 Annual Report
Download AFCC’s 2015 Annual Report
Download AFCC’s 2014 Annual Report