Additional programming space is another step closer to reality for the Viscardi Center, a non-profit that provides education and life skills training to children and adults with disabilities, after they received a $250,000 state grant on Jan. 28.
The center plans to renovate a vacant house on their property to use as an independent living and teaching lab to prepare students with disabilities to be more self-sufficient. It will also include a respite space for staff and family caregivers of the center’s students.
This additional space will allow the center to serve roughly 30 more students, Lauren Marzo, the Viscardi Center’s Chief Development Officer, estimated. She added that, in total, the center approximates 150 students will benefit from this expansion.
This number includes prospective new students and students currently enrolled in organization’s programs with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Current students who will benefit from this new space include those in the Transition Services Program, which provides training for high school students in independent living skills, work readiness, and career preparation, and Day Habitation Without Walls, which supports participants in connecting with their local communities through vocational and social activities, exploring career paths, recreational sports, and more.
Students from the Inclusive Higher Education program, which supports students taking post-secondary education courses on college campuses, will also benefit from the new house.
With the renovated house, the Viscardi Center will be able to expand the types of skills it can teach students, allowing for a new focus on those that will empower them to live independent domestic lives, Marzo said. This includes home cooking, laundry, cleaning, bed making, and budgeting. She hopes the new space will also allow the center to increase the days and hours programming is offered.
Currently, the center has about 30 students on its waitlist for its program, Alice Muterspaw, vice president of Vocational Services at the Viscardi Center, estimated. She said this expansion will help the center bring its waitlist number down and serve more students who would benefit from these programs.
The total cost of the renovation is estimated at $1.425 million, of which the Viscardi Center has raised $1.025 million with a state grant from the Regional Economic Development Council. Marzo said the center will continue working to raise the remaining roughly $400,000 from private donations and public grants.
The house will go through a full gut renovation, large expansion, and be completely furnished prior to opening for programming.
“We feel confident that over the course of the next year we will raise the additional funds needed,” Marzo said. She added that because the center has about two thirds of the necessary funding in place, they will be moving forward with architectural, construction, and programmatic plans now.
If all goes as planned, Marzo said, the construction on the new space would start in early 2026.
