St. Joseph’s Villa breaks ground on autism center
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St. Joseph’s Villa officials broke ground for the Sarah Dooley Center for Autism – a 24,000-square-foot facility that will serve nearly 100 students at a time.
The project will redevelop the existing Dooley School building to create an environment specifically devoted to promoting best practices in autism education, therapy and research, according to Villa officials.
A new Campus Center housed within SDCA will provide a flexible space to host trainings for public school teachers, parents, pediatricians and other professionals who work with children with autism.
“The Sarah Dooley Center for Autism will be a state-of-the-art venue for attracting new community partners and experts in autism to the Greater Richmond region,” said Kathleen Burke Barrett, CEO of St. Joseph’s Villa. “The number of students with an autism diagnosis is rapidly increasing, and we must prepare our schools and communities to educate and welcome them.”
The Virginia Department of Education reports that the number of students appearing on the autism spectrum has increased by approximately 12 percent each year during the past decade. Redeveloping SDCA will build on the Villa’s partnership with public schools and commitment to helping this growing population successfully integrate with their communities, officials said. The new facility is designed to serve as a model for autism-specific classrooms that can be replicated in public school systems with existing resources.
Other new SDCA resources will include a sensory library, health suite for students in need of medical attention, observation areas for parents, trainees and research partners, and a dedicated space for learning independent living skills. Construction is anticipated to finish ahead of the 2020-2021 school year.
An $8 million project, the transformation of SDCA is part of the Villa’s $25 million RiseUP campaign for programmatic support, campus- wide upgrades, and endowment provisions. The new center and entire campaign are key components of the Villa's vision for its future; among the planned campus upgrades are a new youth fitness park, energy efficient windows and air conditioning systems, modern operations technology and repairs to preserve the historic buildings. Nearly $19 million has been committed to the campaign to date.
