Albany ARC acquires former Sherwood lower campus

ALBANY — The child development program that served as the foundation to create the Albany Advocacy Resource Center more over 50 years ago will soon move into a new home now that the organization has purchased the former Sherwood Christian School lower campus building on Stuart Avenue.

Soon to be rechristened The Kid’s Corner Child Development Center, the new academic building will begin housing all of the ARC’s child development activities, including its preschool, which services children with developmental disabilities.

“We serve children with developmental disabilities and developmental delays and children on the autism disorder spectrum to get them ready to go into mainstream school,” said ARC Deputy Director DeAnna Julian. “Our ages start from about 18 months up to 4 years old and we do a lot of social skills training, behavioral skills and different things like that to get them ready to function in mainstream, public schools.”

As of today the ARC has roughly 25 students in its developmental program but will be expanding that number to 40 when the new school year starts in August.

“We are grant-funded for 20 children, but we want to be able to expand that,” Julian said. “Right now we have 40 to start the school year with next year. August the 15^th is our target date.”

Julian said that in addition to housing the preschool, the new child development center will also house an after-school program for children with disabilities and delays, and that the organization also hopes to begin offering summer camps for those children in future years.

“This was just a great space and it gives us an opportunity to expand,” Julian said. “With this, we have the space we need to provide the services to children in our community.”

Currently, the ARC’s preschool is housed in a former church on Fifth Avenue, which the organization has been renting. That facility, which Julian said is inadequate for the program’s needs, is the most recent in a long line of temporary spaces the program has used.

“Our child development program has been located in various places around Albany,” said Julian. “They were located at a little bitty house somewhere in east Albany at one point, and then they were on Albany State’s campus, until the flood (of 1994), I believe, and then they were located in a little office building over in Brooks Plaza. Then, like I said, we rented a church over on Fifth Avenue that was just not a conducive space. With this, we finally have a home that we can grow and expand and provide our services in.”

Julian said having the new space has also brought the ARC full circle to a certain extent, as it was the need of parents to have help with their children that was the genesis of the Albany ARC.

“This was actually the first program that started everything back in 1963,” explained Julian of the child development program. “It was a grassroots group of about 10 parents that got together to start a program for children with disabilities because there was nothing like it in the state or in the area. At that time, (those children) weren’t really included in the public schools. So ARC has really grown from a small childhood development center all the way into what you will hopefully see in the near future.”

Julian, along with ARC Director of Development Erin Freeman, also pointed out that in addition to obtaining a roughly 16,000-square-foot facility, which sits on more than 7 acres and contains office space, 20 classrooms and two playgrounds, the move to the new home is also good for the organization financially.

“It’s an opportunity for us,” said Freeman. “We got a really good deal. Our board negotiated really well for us so that it ended up we won’t be spending any more money to actually own this campus and have this beautiful space to grow in than we were renting a space that had lots of trouble.”

Having the cooperation of Sherwood was also vital to working out that deal, and Julian said the faith-based organization’s leadership group was incredibly easy to work with. She said the original plan was have the building torn down before selling the property on the open market, but after reaching out to the organization’s leadership Sherwood officials decided to make a deal with the ARC.

“Sherwood really worked with us and was very willing to negotiate,” Julian said. “They also donated a lot of items we can use inside, which is great. They have been very gracious.”

The ARC closed on the building earlier this month and has already begun making renovations to the facility, including doing roof repairs and some interior work, like adding sheetrock and flooring, as well as painting and cleaning existing carpet.

Julian said if everything goes well, they hope to open the center Aug. 15 and begin offering additional programming shortly after. One such additional offering will be hosting the ARC’s autism support groups, which are organized by Sonia Prescott, the education director for the Kid’s Corner Child Development Center.

Prescott said the ARC currently hosts a support group for the parents of children with autism and a social group where autistic children ages 7-9 meet.

Anyone wanting more information about the support groups, new facility and the ARC’s child development programs can contact Prescott at (229) 344-4223.