The vacant Moose Lodge on Portage Road could become the home of a new center that will help autistic children and their families from Southwest Michigan as well as the entire state. The Great Lakes Center for Autism Treatment and Research, which would provide both outpatient and inpatient care, could open as early as March 2012, said Scott Schrum, chief executive officer of Residential Opportunities Inc. ROI is a Kalamazoo nonprofit organization that serves people with disabilities.
Schrum said ROI hopes to finalize the $675,000 sale of the building at 9616 Portage Road late next month or early August and begin a $1.7 million renovation project in September, in time to open its doors by early next year.
So far, ROI has raised $636,000 of the $2.5 million needed to buy and refurbish the old 18,500-square-foot lodge.Schrum said the new center could help 20 children a year who would otherwise be stuck on a waiting list trying to get into intensive inpatient treatment at the other three autistic centers in Michigan. The outpatient program would serve up to 100 children annually in the greater Kalamazoo County area.
"The impact for these children will be huge," Schrum said of the center, which would be a partnership between ROI and the Western Michigan University Department of Psychology.
A professor, two graduate assistants and interns from the psychology department would join 35 other employees to run the center, which would be staffed 24/7.
Autism is a disorder that affects one out of every 110 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/06/center_to_help_autistic_childr.html
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