Mission & Background
Acre Family Child Care provides a pathway for women to achieve economic independence by operating high quality childcare businesses in their homes.
Acre Family provides care for nearly 400 children every day in a network of family childcare homes. Acre Family staff visit the homes of providers to monitor the quality of care and offer family support services. Providers are also required to attend early childhood training programs offered in their native 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 childcare. Acre Family Child Care provides training programs in English, Spanish, and Khmer that prepare women to run licensed family childcare businesses in their own homes. This approach has a positive impact in the community: the family childcare providers earn a living and are able to stay at home with their own young children; at the same time, they offer childcare to the community so other parents may work or attend job training programs.
Thirty Years of Community Impact
- More than 15,000 children have received childcare services. Acre’s staff of childcare specialists conduct over 1,500 visits per year to the family childcare homes to ensure children are receiving developmentally-appropriate care in safe and nurturing environments.
- Over 500 women launched family childcare businesses with Acre Family’s assistance. 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 childcare providers to help buy educational supplies, make improvements to childcare 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 childcare providers called Learningames. Acre trained providers to use the curriculum in their program and providing monthly technical assistance visits to model the program with the children. Researchers evaluated 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 childcare 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 childcare 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
Caroline Khripin, Grant Writer
Child Care and Professional Development
Lucas Skorczeski, Co-Executive Director
Isadora Chiribi, Social Worker
Alitza Gonzalez, Parent Services Coordinator
Daniela Paez, Training Coordinator
Nathaly Mejia, Child Care Specialist
Angela Mendonca, Child Care Specialist
Emily Morales, Child Care Specialist
Bopha Tran, Child Care Specialist
Transportation
Zoraida Cartagena, Transportation Manager
Brenda Ferreira, Driver
Melanie Provost, Driver
Caitlin Sanchez, Driver
Leishla Santiago, Driver
Maria Valdez, Driver
Celissa Zanders, Driver
Board of Directors
Officers
Donna Saati, Chair
Director, Compliance, Lighthouse Credit Union, Dover, NH
Vannak Theng, Vice Chair
MLL Teacher, Lowell Public Schools, Lowell, MA
Robert Cody, Treasurer
VP of Financial Analysis, Hanscom Federal Credit Union, Littleton, MA
Daniel Rios, Clerk
Financial Manager, Hanscom Air Force Base, Hanscom AFB, MA
Directors
Isolda Cano
Family Child Care Provider, Acre Family Child Care, Lowell, MA
Thomas “Doc” Daugherty
Former Volunteer Engagement Director, Eastern Bank Foundation, Boston, MA
Michelle Dobrin
Department Chair, Education, Middlesex Community College, Lowell, MA
Carolina Hernandez
Family Child Care Provider, Acre Family Child Care, Lowell, MA
Cecilio Hernandez
Executive Director, Fortaleza Inc., Lowell, MA
Sarah Merrill
Assistant Professor of Psychology, UMass Lowell, 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
Michelle Torrice
Commercial Credit Officer, FVP, Rockland Trust, 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