“Gather around, dragonflies, butterflies, bumblebees, and fireflies!”
It’s singalong time at Growing Connections for Pediatric Achievements (GCPA) in Greensboro.
The names for the different children’s classes feel appropriate. Some of the kids are just barely old enough to walk. All have developmental delays or special health care needs. But in the comforting circle formed by their classroom leads, aides, and therapists, they happily sing along to “Wheels on the Bus” and other familiar nursery tunes as they participate in their speech, physical, or occupational therapy.
The staff wears colorful smocks decorated with a communication picture board. Children with speech delays or differences can point to the symbol of what they need, a system known as augmented and alternative communication (AAC). Similar boards cover their playground and the digital communication tablets they use in therapy sessions.
It feels like a place where a child can find their wings and soar.
One of the things that makes GCPA stand out, according to Executive Director Ma’Kayla Jefcoat, is that its programs are for children from birth to 3 years old. “A lot of other programs start at age 2,” she says. “But 80% of brain growth happens in birth-to-three. Two is a late start to be going into early intervention.”
Another perk is its location. If not for this center housed at Guilford County Schools’ Gateway Education Center, many Triad parents might have to go an hour or two out of their way, driving their children to Winston-Salem or Chapel Hill.
And GCPA has gone through a lot of growth upon reaching its 75th anniversary. It not only serves as a launchpad for children; it’s been a platform for UNC Greensboro students with a passion for care.
More than a grade; a mission
Jefcoat ’20, ’22 MPA, like many alumnae now working full-time at GCPA, began as an intern while she was earning her master of public affairs with a concentration in non-profit management, having moved onto graduate school immediately after getting her bachelor’s in English from UNCG.
She was drawn to GCPA because she knew she would see an immediate benefit from her contributions. “I wanted a project that I knew would be making an impact, instead of just doing one for a grade,” she says.
She got a sense of the importance of GCPA — then known as the Greensboro Cerebral Palsy Association — from her very first meeting with its vice president, Mike Krick, in 2020. “He got emotional talking about the program and how important the work was,” she relates. “That really spoke to me and made me excited to help them.”
One of her first tasks was taking over social media responsibilities. The young intern brought an internet savviness the older staff greatly appreciated.
Little did she know it would become much more than that.
Throughout her internship, she observed the operations, fundraising, and partnership strategies of a nonprofit, and she wrote down her own ideas for improving those functions. She shared her ideas with Krick.
To her surprise, he said, “That is something we want our executive director to do.” Within a matter of months, she was recommended by the vice president to take on that very position.
“Here we are, four-plus years later,” she says. “It was a shock, but I was excited. I like to start from a blank slate, to build and see what the possibilities are. It was kind of comforting that there wasn’t a ‘box.’ I could make that box.”
A growth plan serves growing minds
Jefcoat initiated a review of growth opportunities for the program. Changing the name was one of the first priorities.
“Greensboro Cerebral Palsy Association no longer fully reflected all of what we did after 75 years,” she says. “We serve children with all developmental delays and disorders: autism, Down syndrome. We’ve had rarer conditions. As long as a child needs developmental services, then we are a resource to them.”
Renaming GCPA also helped them promote connections to families in the rest of Guilford County, not just Greensboro.
One of their biggest growth achievements was taking advantage of new technology. Jefcoat and the team were able to secure AAC devices with multiple language capacities for children with speech delays.
“And we make sure they leave the program with a device,” she says, “because once they age out, if they try to get one through the school system, with all the medical and insurance documentation necessary, it can take over a year to get one. With our dedicated team, we can get it done in a month or two.”
And Jefcoat wanted to make sure support doesn’t end once the child ages out. “We expanded to provide outings and trainings to our alumni families,” she says. “Once they turn 3, we still provide those touchpoints every month. They can still come to us and ask questions. We have 5- and 6-year-olds who still come out to our events.”
Putting together the therapy dream team
The access to technology and education is inarguably life-changing, but it comes second to the personal interactions the children get each day with dedicated therapists, classroom leaders, and assistants.
Therapy Director and Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) Sarah Cunningham ’11 MA got to know GCPA during her UNCG graduate school fieldwork across the hall in the Gateway Education Center. She’s loved working with children since her childhood babysitting and nannying jobs. Eventually, she wanted to focus on kids with special needs. That led her to UNCG to get her master’s in speech-language pathology.
“I myself was born with a limb difference,” says Cunningham. “I have no fingers on my right hand, so I always had a propensity toward working with others in ways that might make a difference or help them improve their lives, to be accepted.”
Once the organization hired her as their full-time therapy director, she went to work getting GCPA credentialed and enrolled in additional Medicaid and other insurance programs. “That really opened up doors for me to invest in growing the therapy program,” she says. “Working with Ma’Kayla, I’ve had to stretch myself as a leader, be a more innovative thinker, be a role model, and be an advocate.”
Cunningham made several visits to UNCG to give alumni talks to SLP students. One of those was Roslyn Reynolds ’24 MA. “I thought it sounded a lot like what I wanted to do one day: open a childcare center for kids with special needs and have in-house therapists,” says Reynolds.
She came onboard as an SLP graduate student intern, while Cunningham was still doing speech and feeding therapy and had to spend a considerable amount of her hours trialing and obtaining AAC devices based on each child’s needs. Reynolds freed up Cunningham to focus on her other work obligations. Jefcoat and the board made her their center director, assisting with childcare licensing and compliance goals, and a specialty therapist focusing on AAC.
Reynolds says the work expectations of a non-profit versus a business — learning to advocate for her ideas to the GCPA board, seeking new funding sources, etc. — assures her that the children’s best interests always remain front and center. “It allows us to do a deep dive and think about how to best serve these kids,” says Reynolds. “We’re not just thinking about the 30 minutes they’re in our office. We’re thinking about how we can make things more accessible for their families, how we can meet their goals.”
In the business of making a difference
As part of Jefcoat’s job, she constantly looks for new funding and creative ways to stretch GCPA’s resources. Naturally, it made sense to lean upon a resource in her backyard: UNCG’s Bryan School of Business and Economics.
She already had a direct link through one of her board members, Dr. Sara MacSween, senior lecturer of marketing, entrepreneurship, hospitality, and tourism. Students in her capstone course Advanced Marketing Management must create a marketing plan for a real organization, so in 2024, she had them work on GCPA’s rebrand. The students compared GCPA’s services to similar health care programs. They proposed short-term and mid-term goals, including ways to attract more donors with increased marketing and a greater online presence.
They recommended revamping the name and mission statement and proposed a new logo. “We went back and forth with the graphic designer, making changes so that it was just perfect,” says MacSween. “It’s a very strategic logo with different insects like ladybugs. We intentionally put in all the animals that make up the classrooms.”
Additionally, MacSween recommended Alice Jones ’24, a student from the capstone course, join GCPA as an intern to help with implementation. Her contributions were vital to Jefcoat. “I’m the only person on the organizational side,” she says. “All the administrative things — fundraising, development — that’s on me. You can imagine there’s a lot of things on my plate. And so, [Alice] was instrumental in rebranding.”
MacSween says nonprofits are great spaces for marketing students to experiment. “When working with a small company, a nonprofit or startup, the marketing needs vary greatly by client by client,” she says, “So students have to get very creative and come up with cost-effective ways to promote these smaller organizations.”
Soaring into the future
Cunningham and Reynolds share Jefcoat’s gratitude in seeing how their work directly impacts their community. “Working in a nonprofit really takes money out of the equation, as far as you’re doing it for the betterment of the people,” says Cunningham. “We have more flexibility, more creativity, more thinking outside the box.”
“We really get to know the families,” says Reynolds, “And so we can celebrate their growth together.”
“UNCG produces some great people,” says Jefcoat. “We have an amazing team that is really dedicated to service and going above and beyond.”
Story by Janet Imrick, University Communications
Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications
