Grow With Us: A Capital Campaign for Piedmont Forest School
Piedmont Forest School is currently seeking funding to purchase and develop land to construct the only school in North Carolina offering nature-based education and support for autistic / neurodivergent students. PFS is already one of the largest forest schools in the state (currently serving families across 7 counties), but needs a physical building in order to become a registered school. This expansion would enable us to continue serving participants through grade school and to create a broader impact as a model for child-led and neuro-affirmative learning.Â
With your help we can grow our supportive learning community. Join our pursuit to create a space where all families can access an exceptional education, from preschool and beyond.
Grow With Us Contribution Levels
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$250+ PFS Friends Picture a day at PFS ALC using hammocks, 3D printers, garden tools, and table saws - all supplies we can buy with the support of enough PFS Friends! |
$500+ PFS Family Imagine if all 100 current PFS families contributed $500 to our cause. That would start us off with $50,000 in funding from those we care most about! |
$1000+ PFS Patron Training the best staff is an investment in our childrenâs future. We need 4 PFS Patrons to make sure our students have highly trained staff. |
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$3000+ PFS Believer Before we can open our school in Fall â25 and begin accepting tuition we need 8 PFS Believers to invest in our future by helping to cover mortgage payments while we prepare to operate. |
$5000+ PFS Champion Much work is to be done to turn this happy home into a school. It will take 15 PFS Champions to sponsor the building modifications necessary to safely operate the school and pass inspections. |
$50,000+ PFS Legend
A contribution of this magnitude would support our learning community for years to come. With the commitment of 5 PFS Legends we can repay our property loan and keep tuition rates low enough to make our program accessible to all families, regardless of their financial situation.
Every dollar, every donor counts!
We greatly appreciate your support whether $5 or $5,000 is a meaningful gift to you. Together, as a community, we can bring education back to the roots.
Piedmont Forest School ALC Â Frequently Asked Questions
Bringing Education Back to the Roots
What is an Agile Learning Center (ALC)?
It is a learning environment and learning design that is highly responsive, adaptive and community oriented. Agile Learning is based on taking incremental steps, constant review and using an iterative design process, where trial and error, learning and doing occur. A typical ALC day begins with a morning meeting where students and staff come together to discuss learning interests and plan specific offerings for the week or the semester. Offerings provide opportunities for individual work as well as group lessons and activities. All students are empowered to contribute to school culture and the decision making process.Â
How do children learn if you donât âteachâ them?
Learning is natural and happening all the time. Babies learn to crawl, walk, and talk without being explicitly taught these things. They look at who and what exists in the world around them, copy and experiment with what they see, practice and learn the skills they need to grow in independence and connectivity to others. In learning communities that value authenticity and collaboration, itâs inevitable that weâll teach each other. Sometimes this happens through classes and workshops, sometimes through conversations and modeling. But itâs always happening.
Does our community really need an alternative to traditional education?
In a poll of over 600 families in the Piedmont Triad with one or more autistic children, we found that 39% choose to homeschool. (This compares to the NC DOA estimate that 9% of children statewide are homeschooled.) When asked if âa traditional classroom or educational program presents your child with greater sensory challenges that they must overcome or receive accommodations for in order to learnâ, 100% of caregivers responded âyesâ. The most cited reasons for these responses included: âMy child requires more movement than is possible in a traditional classroomâ and âMy childâs special interests are underutilized as a tool for learningâ.
What makes Piedmont Forest School the best organization to start the first ALC in the greater Piedmont Triad area?
Piedmont Forest School was founded with the mission to provide to children of all abilities and backgrounds authentic forest school and nature-based education programs which foster the development of the whole child, while engendering in them a love of and a commitment to caring for the natural world. Our program values self-directed education and a supportive learning environment that caters to learners of all types and levels. In a short time PFS has expanded to become one of the largest forest schools in NC, serving 100 families across 7 counties, and one of the only programs offering individualized student and family support under the guidance of educational therapists, OTs, SLPs, and other developmental professionals.
Is Piedmont Forest School ALC *only* for neurodivergent children?
No, at PFS we have seen first hand the benefits of mixed age, mixed ability groups. We are proud to be a neurodiverse learning community.Â
To learn more, visit www.piedmontforestschool.org/GrowWithUs
Questions? Want to join our cause? Contact PFS Fundraising Chair, Gabrielle LaMountain, at gabrielle@piedmontforestschool.org to learn more or set up a meeting with our team.