Simplified: Brittany Lux used to get calls every day from her daughter's childcare center about behavior challenges or medical questions. It got to the point where she started working overnights because it was easier to find someone to watch her daughter while she slept than while she was awake. Then, she found Uniquely Yours.

Why it matters

  • Uniquely Yours is a childcare center and day habilitation facility for medically complex kids who currently fall into a gap between traditional childcare facilities and full-on residential services. They serve kids ages 3 to 21, and construction is underway on a brand new building in Harrisburg.
  • Founders Sarah Parmenter and Emily Bartscher both have a background in special education. They also both have children with disabilities and know firsthand the challenges of finding trusted care – even for a few hours to just rest and get a break from their caretaker roles.
  • Uniquely Yours is also preparing to launch its first-ever fundraising campaign to support Parmenter and Bartscher's work in serving this historically underserved population of kids.
  • For parents like Lux, Uniquely Yours has meant going back to a normal 9-5 weekday job. It's also meant trusting that her 13-year-old daughter is in a space outside of school where she's not only safe, but truly cared for and engaging with others. In other centers, Lux worried she'd just sit by the door and stay there waiting for pickup. But at Uniquely Yours?
"She's with kids like her – everyone understands her," Lux said. "She's developed a ton of new friendships ... she's gotten her first crush. She's loving it."

Tell me more

Bartscher and Parmenter met while earning their teaching degrees at Augustana. Bartscher had just lost her childhood friend who had disabilities and who Bartscher had always cared for. She even bought a handicap accessible house after graduating with her teaching degree, but her friend died before she ever got to visit.

  • It was around that time Bartscher met Parmenter, whose then-5-year-old son Jaiden has cerebral palsy. Jaiden began coming to Bartscher's "Care Nights," where she would invite parents to bring kids to her house for a few hours so they could get a break.
  • Bartscher continued her care nights after adopting her daughter, a then-9-year-old with disabilities.
"It's so hard to find people that you trust to care for your child with a disability who actually get it," Parmenter said.

And, after several years of working in the Harrisburg School District, Bartscher and Parmenter decided last fall to go all-in on Uniquely Yours.

The business opened in June, operating out of Garfield Elementary School for the summer before moving to Harrisburg United Methodist Church in the fall. The church is next door to the lot where the new Uniquely Yours facility is currently under construction.

How it differs from other centers

Parmenter describes Uniquely Yours as filling a missing gap for kids who fall somewhere between the need for standard childcare (tier one) and those who need a more intensive or residential care like LifeScape (tier three).

"We're really in that tier two, and that's never existed before," Parmenter said. "There's never been a space for families to have their children attend a care center so they can maintain some fluidity of a work life some sanity to do the things they want to do to take a nap or go to a movie or have a date with their spouse or do something that feels good to them,"

Many of the kids have been kicked out of other childcare facilities – sometimes several, Parmenter added, and that makes it hard for parents to maintain consistency in showing up for work.

At Uniquely Yours, Bartscher works to provide activities to keep kids engaged but also options to meet them where they're at.

  • Throughout the facility, there is flexible seating, different sensory inputs, pages where kids who are non-verbal can point to a variety of words and pictures to more effectively communicate.
"We’re just a safe place for kids to work on the skills that they need o be a decent human – behavior regulation, independence, communication," Bartscher said.

What happens next?

A new 5,800-square-foot facility is under construction with room for a future 1,200-foot addition where Parmenter said they hope to someday provide overnight respite care for parents.

Uniquely Yours is also preparing to host its first-ever fundraiser on Nov. 13 at Walk Thru Plans in Sioux Falls. The event will share more about the organization's mission and how the community can support the work they're doing.

In addition, the facility has a formal groundbreaking Friday afternoon.