Penrickton Center for Blind Children

Penrickton Center for Blind Children is a private, non-profit day care and five-day residential agency serving children who are visually impaired with multiple disabilities, ages 1-12.  All financial support is raised from the community; no fees are ever charged to families.

 Penrickton Center was established in 1952 by three families (Penman, Ricker, Wigginton) as a day nursery for blind preschoolers because no such program existed.  Over the years, Penrickton Center has evolved to meet the needs in the community.  Currently, we specialize in working with visually impaired children with additional disabilities, such as deafness, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism and developmental delay.

 Children in our residential program stay with us throughout the week and return home to their families for weekends and holidays.  Children in our day care program can attend one to five days a week.  In both cases, children receive individualized care to help them reach their full potential.  We also provide a consultation/evaluation program for families who may not need our onsite services.

 All of our children receive individualized developmental programming.  This includes the areas of self care (eating, dressing, personal care), travel skills, motor skills and language acquisition.  Children in our evaluation/consultation program receive recommendations in these areas by our professional staff.  Penrickton Center is internationally recognized as the leader of Dr. Lilli Nielsen’s Active Learning method.   

 To help each child reach his or her potential requires expertise by our specially trained staff of child care workers, nurses, social worker, activities director, music therapist, occupational therapist, and dance and movement therapist.

 Volunteers play an important role at Penrickton Center, whether working directly with our children, assisting in our mail program, helping out with building needs or lending their time during fundraising events.  

 Penrickton Center for Blind Children is registered with the IRS as a private non-profit charity 501[c](3) and with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services as a residential child care and day care facility.