History

Life Enrichment has been caring for families since 1980

     Founded in a church in 1980 by a group of concerned citizens who wanted to offer an option to nursing homes, the Life Enrichment Center has become one of the nation's most respected adult day care centers.

     The not-for-profit organization has always had a philosophy of "Whatever It Takes" to help families keep adult family members at home and in the community.

     In 1995, Life Enrichment became the first adult day care in North Carolina to build a facility from the ground up. The 6,000-square-foot facility, called the Buddy Roberts Center, is located in Shelby, NC. Certified to serve 50 participants a day, it was at capacity by 1999.

     The Board of Directors began an in-depth study to find where a service expansion was most needed. The resulting center in Kings Mountain, N.C., 13 miles east of Shelby, is a 15,000-square-foot facility, completed in February 2004.
    

     That facility, called the Neisler Center, serves eastern Cleveland County, Gaston County and surrounding areas. The Neisler Center, with its Dover Foundation Healing Garden, has been featured in Design Environments for Aging 2008 and a PBS series entitled GardenStory.

     In 2005, with Shelby's Buddy Roberts Center full and the Kings Mountain Neisler Center nearing capacity enrollment, the Board of Directors again began to look at service expansion. Life Enrichment purchased 26 acres of land across the road from the Shelby center in the summer of 2006. Plans included developing the front part of this parcel of land into lots for sale to help pay for a new 27,000-square-foot Shelby adult day care center, which opened in January of 2011. It is a LEED certified building to provide an environmentally healthy environment.