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 Khadar, Co-Executive Director
Elizabeth Doherty, Director of Finance
Alcinda Baillargeon, Office Manager/Billing Specialist
Christina Cordon, IT Administrator
Shaniece Custis, Administrative Assistant
Kristin McCauley, Development Manager/Grant Writer
Child Care and Professional Development
Lucas Skorczeski, Co-Executive Director
Brenda Acero, Professional Development Coordinator
Isadora Chiribi, Parent Engagement Coordinator
Christina Cordon, Contract Manager
Angela Mendonca, Child Care Specialist
Geraldine Palacio, Child Care Specialist
Linette Perez, Social Worker
Bopha Tran, Child Care Specialist
Transportation
Sheila Primeau, Transportation Manager
Zoraida Cartagena, Driver
Paola Colindres, Driver
Rick Rosa, Driver
Leishla Santiago, Driver
Board of Directors
Officers
Bethany Watson, Chair
Executive Assistant, Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union, Lowell, MA
Donna Saati, Vice Chair
Sr. Commercial Lending Compliance Reporting Specialist, Bank Officer, Enterprise Bank, Lowell, MA
Kathleen Leon, Treasurer
Former V.P. and Controller of Courier Corporation, Chelmsford, MA
Deb Beland, Clerk
Applications System Analyst, Enterprise Bank, Lowell, MA
Directors
Thomas “Doc” Daugherty
Regional Branch Manager Vice President, Eastern Bank, Lowell, MA
Ellen Grondine
Dean of Education & K-16 Partnerships, Middlesex Community College, Bedford & Lowell, MA
Vanna Howard
Chief of External Affairs and Government Relations, Lowell Community Health Center, Lowell, MA
Valessa Marques
Family Child Care Provider, Acre Family Child Care, Lowell, MA
Cathy Mercado
Project Coordinator, Merrimack Valley Housing Partnership, Lowell, MA
Beth Mitchneck
Vice Provost of Faculty Success, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA
Darmery Montoya
Family Child Care Provider, Acre Family Child Care, Lowell, MA
Chris Ortiz
Founder and CEO, MCC INC., Tyngsboro, MA
Maria Pino
Family Child Care Provider, Acre Family Child Care, Lowell, MA
Diane Tradd
Asst. City Manager/Department of Planning & Development Director, City of Lowell, Lowell, MA
Sandra Velez
Family Child Care Provider, Acre Family Child Care, 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/)
