Harwood Center, Inc.

Since 1957, Harwood Center has provided educational and therapeutic services to children with developmental disabilities from 18 months to 6 years of age in Mid-South area. Harwood Center is currently the only company in the state of Tennessee with a two-year Behavior Health Center of Excellence (BHCOE) accreditation. Thanks to their wonderful partnership with University of Memphis, we opened a new 8,000 square foot building in the beginning of 2022 to provide training, research, and therapy to children with special needs.

Since 1957 Harwood Center has dedicated itself to providing Hugs, Hope, and Help to the children and families in the Mid-South Area. We work tirelessly to meet the family and child where they are and build on their individual strengths to develop skills that will last a lifespan. These goals can involve anything from having a child use the bathroom independently so that he can go to a school where being toilet trained is required. Others are building the relationship and communication with the parent and child. Hearing a child say “I love you” for the first time or playing Ring-Around-The-Rosie with their brother or sister may seem small milestones, but these are life changing memories to that family. We achieve these memories by using evidence-based research in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Speech Language Pathology services. Although we are a small nonprofit, we were the first in Tennessee to gain a Behavior Health Center of Excellence accreditation. When only 57% of companies become accredited the first time, Harwood not only did but the following year received a 2-year accreditation; making it one of the very few in the state.

When the pandemic began in March 2020, Harwood remained steadfast its mission and within two weeks had switched all its services from center-based to tele-health. Shortly after began offering in-home services. Thanks to the wonderful partnership with University of Memphis, we rented space on their property, while we built our dream home. In April 2022, we had our grand opening of our new 8,000 square foot space. This location offers us the opportunity to train students and the community in how to support and help our families and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We welcome students and the community to volunteer, intern, and shadow to learn about this amazing population of children. Although the cause remains unknown, ASD is one of the fastest-growing developmental disorders in the U.S., 2020 CDC reports 1 in 54 children. ABA therapy, which is considered best practice for treatment of children with ASD, is the main service we currently offer. Although they may not all communicate with their voice, they each have an amazing personality to bring a joy to the world. Our goal for this year to continue to support our children and their families by tripling our size to bring more joy and understanding to the Mid-South area.