Sierra Barrow, founder of the Barrow Center, which celebrates its first anniversary on February 6, said that the year has been filled with more ups than downs.
On the upside, she said she cannot speak enough on how generous the community has been. She said that she is also pleased with how great the staff is, and the special relationships she has made with families and the community.
The Barrow Center is a licensed therapeutic childcare center through the Virginia Department of Education and is classified as a non-profit organization 501 (c) 3. The inspiration behind the center is Barrow’s special needs niece “Lexy” who, due to the severity of her disabilities, was unable to receive daycare. Barrow said that her experiences as a nurse care manager while working in a pediatric palliative care clinic in Greensboro also inspired the idea of the center. She said that seeing the struggles of those parents who had children in that clinic was an eye-opening experience.
Barrow, who is a full-time nurse and mother of three, said the center takes babies and children up to the age of eighteen with special needs and who are medically fragile, like type 1 diabetes.
“The majority of our staff are MAT (medication administration trained), and we are also an approved childcare subsidy vendor through social services,” she said. “Not only does our area not have a daycare center that takes special needs children, but being able to give meds is another service we provide that most childcare centers cannot provide.”
The Barrow Center is only the third licensed therapeutic daycare center in the State of Virginia. The others are in Richmond and Norfolk.
On the downside, Barrow said finances have been the hardest.
“Most of our money comes from a social services childcare subsidy, but we still haven’t broken even. It’s hard but we keep going,” she said.
Barrow doesn’t pay herself but has eight employees on the payroll. She said that a special needs daycare provider requires more staff, so the overhead is greater.
“Making a profit is our biggest concern,” Barrow said. “Not to speak poorly of our foster care system but they are 2 to 3 months behind on paying for the foster care children that come here. I’ve had to no longer take foster care children due to this. Not only is it unfair to them but it has hurt us tremendously as a business.”
Barrow’s goal for 2024 is to take in 10 more kids and make a profit. She added that she would like to find a bigger space as well. The center is currently occupying three rooms inside Freedom Baptist Church in Axton.
Barrow said she really needs the Martinsville City Council and city schools to put together a plan for afterschool transportation to the center for their special needs children.
“I’ve spoken to the school board, and they were very nice and receptive and told me they are brainstorming,” she said. “I’ve also talked to the mayor as well. We’ve played phone tag, but I can only hope it’ll open eyes to what we really lack. Poor guy, I gave him a lot to think about. We are not even 5 minutes outside the city.
“I mean it’s new to them and it’ll take time. And it’ll take a lot of me and the parents following up. And like all other things, it takes funding and where they will pull that money from, but I have provided this resource for MHC and surrounding areas. And we should be able to help families in the city of Martinsville year-round not just the summer,” she said.
Barrow said that if she had she could have done anything differently, she would have done more fundraising before opening the center and took some grant writing courses.
Riverside Tire in Martinsville is donating $1 to the Barrow Center for every tire sold from Jan. 15 through Feb. 29.
For more information about the center, call 276-806-2797, email info@thebarrowcenter.org, or private message The Barrow Center Facebook page. To make a donation or become a sponsor, visit thebarrowcenter.org.
