For nearly 70 years, the Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent has helped young people in the community fulfill their potential and now, the group is looking to reach its own potential.
“We’re in the pre-planning stages for growth,” said board chair Donna Ceccacci. “We need to be able to expand to do the job we’re already doing and prepare for the future.”
Ceccacci said a major question facing the board is whether to increase the size of its current Lark Street site or seek another location.
“We’ve been here since the mid 1980’s,” said executive director Donna Litwin-Makey. “The scope and complexity of what we’ve done has increased. We’ve made different moves to utilize our space as best we can but there comes a time when you run out of options.”
Ceccacci said the centre served 2,479 children during the last year in areas including occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech therapy, audiology and adapted recreation.
Children Treatment Centre Foundation Executive Director Mike Genge said the scope of the services offered have increased.
“If you look at something such as autism, the spectrum of autism is growing and that means more clients,” he said.
Litwin-Mackey said the province’s increase of specialty services from the age 18 to 21 has been a positive factor for clients as well as other changes in special needs strategies.
“It’s been an important factor in smoothing the transition into adulthood,” she said. “It’s more reflective of society as a whole that 21 is an appropriate age for young people to be on their own.”
Ceccacci said the board hopes to have a recommendation forwarded to the province by autumn.
“We’ve been told that we’re at the top of the list regionally in terms of need but that doesn’t guarantee us anything in terms of funding or timing,” she said. “It’s in our favour that the province is aware of the good work done by our staff and the need for our services in the community.”
She said the Chatham-Kent operation is one of the oldest in Ontario, having opened 68 years ago.
“We were in a scout hut when we started and then we were on Eugenie Street for a while,” Litwin-Makey said.
She credited staff with operating strong programs in all disciplines with clients whose needs vary from mild to high.
“We have an amazing group of specialists in all of our areas and many of them have been with us a long time,” she said.
One item the centre checked off this year is that it now offers speech, physio and occupational therapy at all full-day kindergarten programs in Chatham-Kent.
“We are serving a total of 39 full day Kindergarten schools across Chatham-Kent and we also serve a total of 11 outreach Best Start service locations,” she said.
At its recent annual meeting, the centre honoured client Alex Jones as its Hall of Fame recipient and Dick Perrin as its volunteer of the year.
