SFCC -CHILD CARE / EDUCATION - SCHOOLS

Our Mission

At St. Francis Children’s Center, our mission is to serve and educate children with special needs in inclusive environments, enabling them to reach their greatest potential. 

In 1968, St. Francis Children’s Center started with one belief… the earlier children with special needs received assistance, the more opportunities there would be for them to achieve success.

Today, St. Francis Children’s Center is a nonprofit, non-sectarian organization that serves 800 children — from birth through high school — and their families throughout the Milwaukee area.

We are devoted to working with children of all abilities–those with special needs and those who are typically developing–to ensure that all children have the tools needed to reach their goals.

We are a team of educators, social workers, therapists and administrators ... 

 

 How and Why We Began

St. Francis Children’s Center was founded in 1968 by Sister Joanne Marie Kliebhan, then head of the Special Education Department at Cardinal Stritch University and Eli Tash, a Jewish businessman and the father of a son with special needs.

In those days, the general feeling was that children with special needs should wait until they were “ready” to go to school. However, Sister Joanne Marie and Mr. Tash strongly believed that the earlier these children received services, the more opportunities there would be for them to achieve success.

Their shared vision was to someday create a unique learning center that would stimulate the early development of children with special needs…a place where the philosophy and programs would reflect their belief that, “all children can learn if we can learn how to teach them.”

Throughout our 50 year history, we have never lost sight of our mission, and we remain as committed today as we were then to maximizing the learning potential of every child we serve.