University Schools Partnerships
Harwood Center
Founded in 1957, Harwood Center, located in Memphis, TN, serves children ages 18 months through 6 years who have developmental delays and autism. Harwood Center is currently the only company in West Tennessee with a two-year Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (BHCOE) accreditation. Our goal is two-fold: we strive to optimize the learning potential of each child that comes through our doors as well as work diligently to make sure each child is fully known and fully loved.
In Fall 2020, we continued to expand our services with our growing partnership with the University of Memphis (UofM). This expansion involved implementing a multi-disciplinary classroom on the campus of the UofM that merges Licensed Special Education teachers and Board Certified Behavior Analysts.
The classroom schedule is Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m.-3:15 p.m., with Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) one-on-one therapy services offered from 3:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. The classroom is led by a Licensed Special Education Teacher and associates who are all additionally Registered Behavior Technicians (RBT), a national certification within the field of ABA. A Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) is also be working closely with the Teacher and providing the RBTs their required supervision and clinical guidance.
The classroom ratio is minimized in order to optimize learning during an essential part of brain development. Due to the quality of the professionals and low ratios, the classroom requires a monthly tuition of $1,100. Priority of this classroom is for faculty, staff, and full-time students of the UofM. This will create an opportunity for the families we serve to achieve or support those seeking a higher level of education while their children receive nationally accredited clinical and educational care.
In January 2022, we are opening a newly renovated building to provide one-on-one ABA therapy to children on South Campus.
For more information, please visit the Harwood Center website at www.harwoodcenter.org.
Inquiries about enrollment can be directed to the Intake Coordinator at intake@harwoodcenter.org or call 901.584.8281.
Porter-Leath
Porter-Leath has been dedicated to empowering children and families to achieve a healthy, optimal and independent lifestyle for more than 170 years. The agency now serves more than 10,000 children and families each year through their program focus areas that are designed to meet developmental, health and social needs at the earliest opportunity.
The University of Memphis and Porter-Leath are partnering to launch a new, innovative Early Childhood Academy located alongside the Orange Mound neighborhood’s RedZone Ministries. The Academy is designed to help address a critical need for early childhood care in the Memphis community.
The partnership will provide a research-based educational facility to serve children ages 6 weeks through 5 years old, where care is most crucial and underprovided in Shelby County. The Early Childhood Academy will feature state-of-the-art research and observation technology, wraparound services for children and families, child-centered and developmentally appropriate spaces for learning and training facilities for current and prospective early childhood practitioners.