HISTORY
Kids, Incorporated was founding in August of 1975 as a 501 (c)(3), private non-profit organization, the concept of a joint committee of members of the Association for Retarded Citizens of Cumberland County and the Cumberland County Mental Health Association. The agency was an outgrowth of Project Outreach, a program sponsored by the Cumberland County Mental Health Association to provide counseling services to Cumberland County families having at least one child under the age of six with any problem considered detrimental to the mental health and general development of the children.
Many of the Project Outreach families had children with severe disabilities and were forced to drive to metropolitan areas to receive therapy for their child, a once a month service at best. It was felt the area was in need of a center based program to provide counseling, developmental training, therapy, and respite services on a daily bases. Kids, Incorporated was created to both continue family counseling and to provide center based early intervention to children from birth to age six. The original Board of Directors had seven members. Funding was secured by contracting with the Tennessee Department of Human Services (DHS) for Title XX grant monies, later to be termed Social Service Block Grant (SSBG) funds.
The first official day of operation was January 2, 1976 with staff interviews, planning, and start up purchasing begins the initial activities. The former office of Project Outreach over Smith Rx Drugs temporarily housed the initial operations, but the first location of Kids, Incorporated was on the corner of Central Avenue and West Avenue North, locally known as the “Hill House.” Four children with multiple and severe developmental delays were the first clients and centered the center on April 1, 1976. Inadequate funds dictated a single line, no intercom, telephone system, so the secretary had to stomp a code on the floor to indicate who had an incoming call downstairs. Inability to comply with Life Safety Code lead to vacating the Hill House at the State Fire Marshall’s insistence.
The Center leased a large two-room block building, which we couldn’t afford, on Lantana Road until January 1, 1977. It then moved to the Old Careny Nursing Home, a facility built and utilized as a nursing home for the elderly, on Garfield Street that had also been closed by the Fire Marshall. Rainy days made meal preparation rather difficult as all the pots and pans were used to catch leaks. 
In April of 1990, Kids, Inc moved across the street into a newly constructed facility. The building was a joint effort between Kids, Inc, Hilltoppers, and the Cumberland County Association for Retarded Citizens with $100,000 cash match raised for the $400,000 facility. The State Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (DMH/MR) provided seventy-five percent of the building funds through a Capital Outlay Grant.
In 1979, the State Department of Education asserted that “beginning at age four, all children with disabilities had free and appropriate educational services in all ninety-five counties in Tennessee.” Consequently, children previously served by Kids, Inc from age 4 to 6 were no longer eligible for services, and many went home to wait. Typically, the local school system would attempt to provide services after the children reached their 6th birthday.
Funding for counseling services was discontinued in the early 1980’s from SSBG grant applications. In 1984, state funding changed from SSBG through DHS to state dollars through DMH/MR grants. Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (DMH/MR) changed the funding formula from grants to fee-for-service formula, initiated in the 1995-1996 fiscal year. Some funds were also obtained beginning that fiscal year for the Department of Education’s Tennessee Early Intervention System (TEIS) when services where provided to Part H eligible children and DMH/MR contracted slots were filled.
At the urging of the DMH/MR Office of Community Services at Clover Bottom, Kids, Incorporated accepted an Established Grant in April of 1995 to re-establish services in Fentress, Putnam, and Jackson counties after the closing of the Upper Cumberland Early Intervention Services by Plateau Mental Health Center. Fentress and Jackson Counties are home-based services and Putnam County had both home and center-based services. Jackson County services were eventually discontinued and Putnam County teamed up with Pace Setters.
The Federal Reauthorization of IDEA, 1997 reaffirmed and mandated that services provided to children with disabilities from birth to three years of age be in their “Natural Environment,” and with children of their same age who did not have disabilities. In other words, our centers for children only having qualifying disabilities would have to enroll typically developing children to create an “Inclusive Environment.” While this certainly presented some challenges, the concept of having children with disabilities interact with typically developing peers is highly desirable.
In July of 1998, the first typically developing child was enrolled in the Crossville Center. In January of 1999, Kids, Incorporated choose to discontinued transportation services in an effort to cope with the demands of Natural and Inclusive Environments.
In July of 1999, after many futile attempts to secure space to serve children with the Fentress County School System, and having no success in obtaining office space through local government, Kids’ leased office space. This was much to the delight of the home and community teacher who had been forced to work out of her car and conduct meetings at MacDonald’s.
In July of 2007, the Tennessee Department of Special Education took over responsibility for the Established Grant from the DMH/MR. Kids, Incorporated is still licensed through DMH/MR. Certification comes from the Tennessee Department of Education. | 
