BROOKHAVEN — A cool breeze, smiles and cheering accompanied the ribbon cutting of the nonprofit The iCare Foundation office in downtown Brookhaven.  

Garrick Combs, executive director of the Brookhaven Chamber of Commerce, welcomed a crowd of 20 people to the iCare office at 127 West Cherokee Street for a ribbon cutting Wednesday. Combs said they appreciate people investing in downtown and providing a service to the community. 

Shannon Alford, Founder of iCare, said her board for the non-profit steps up to help run everything and aid children with special needs in the community. Alford’s son Carter is one of the children in Brookhaven who have a special need. 

She said the idea for the non-profit organization came from prayer and a group of special needs parents, nurses and medical care professionals. They see a need for their services in Brookhaven, Alford said. 

“Carter has special needs and he opened my eyes to a whole new world. I love every second of it. Being his mom, I realized there were so many programs we needed,” Alford said. “I put my life and career on hold and went straight into full-time therapy. We made many trips out of state. Through it all, with all the doctors, no one told me about the programs we needed to be in. Whether it was medicaid for his medicine, disability or the IDV waiver. I only got the information through research. We attended a special needs preschool in Jackson and the director there had a heart and wanted to make sure information about the programs were out there.” 

Alford said she realized parents in Brookhaven needed the same support she got. ICare provides a space for mom and dads of special needs children to come get help. She said they understand and will walk families through the process. 

Inclusion, Connection, Advocacy, Resources and Education are the goals of iCare according to their mission statement on icare-miss.org. Bill Boerner, an attorney in Brookhaven, thanked iCare for setting out to serve the community. 

“As a practicing attorney doing a lot of family law I frequently had clients who needed assistance,” Boerner said. “They were stuck at home and couldn’t live by themselves. They had very little guidance. Those who can help don’t see them out. I am pleased to see y’all doing what you are doing.” 

Alford said they plan to host a quarterly resource roundup to help educate families about the resources available to them. Katie Nations with the Brookhaven Chamber of Commerce offered the chamber’s offices as a meeting space if needed. 

Another goal of iCare is to have a playground where special needs kids and kids who do not have special needs can play side by side. Alford said the playground dream was a bit daunting with the cost of land and playground equipment being around $300,000. It is a goal they are committed to work towards in order to provide every single child a place to play. 

Brookhaven Mayor Joe Cox said he was not aware of the non-profit organization until Nations met with him before the ribbon cutting Wednesday. 

“I hope the city could partner with y’all on some of this, especially with the playground,” Cox said. “Hopefully we can be a part of that.”