KENNEDY CHILD STUDY CENTER BRONX PROFESSIONAL

KENNEDY CHILD STUDY CENTER BRONX PROFESSIONAL

The Center is now a model for early intervention and treatment of disabilities, operating under the well-established assumption that, with early professional attention and sustained therapeutic resources, children are more likely to gain the skills necessary to become productive adults. They didn’t go to school.” As public schools began to assume more responsibility for educating the disabled, KCSC refocused its efforts on serving youngsters from birth to five years of age. “A lot of families kept their disabled kids at home, sometimes till adulthood. “In those days, there was very little money and few services for the disabled,” reflects executive director Peter Gorham, a visionary leader with decades of experience in nonprofit management under his belt. Kennedy, Jr.), KCSC was one of the first organizations in New York City to educate and advocate for children with mental retardation. Founded in 1958 by the Archdiocese of New York and later supported by a substantial grant from Rose and Joseph Kennedy (the Center is named after their late son, Joseph P. KSCS has come a long way in a half century. Let me see if I can find anything else-oh just this really The need for the types of services we offer continues to grow at a substantial rate. In recent years, we have served more than 1,000 children and their families annually through the various programs provided at our Bronx and Manhattan locations.

Under the sponsorship of Catholic Charities, the Kennedy Child Study Center continues to fill a critical gap in New York City. As this shift occurred, the introduction of a multidisciplinary approach to treatment allowed the center to address a wider range of developmental conditions. Initially, the center was a small school for primary grade children this was one of the nation’s first programs of its kind.Īs early intervention proved effective in reducing the consequences of disabilities, our attention shifted toward serving very young children. Kennedy, Jr., for whom the agency is named. Kennedy provided a grant to support the organization in memory of their son, Lieutenant Joseph P. This is an exceptional adaptive-reuse project that supports the central concept of the school, which is to adapt pedagogy to the unique needs to each student.Our History In 1958, the Archdiocese of New York established the Kennedy Child Study Center because it realized that children with mental retardation require more focused educational services. The project worked within the constraints of the low ceiling in the existing building. It allows the faculty to configure and reconfigure groups based on the learning needs.

This works at the scale of the individual and of the collective. 'This is a refined and distilled learning environment that responds to the developmental needs of this sensory-sensitive population.

The adaptive reuse of the 25,000-square-foot space presented a number of difficult challenges, including an unusually low ceiling and absence of any natural light.Ĭonsequently, the design of the 16-classroom facility developed around the need to radically transform the existing warehouse into a varied space for learning and engagement, creating a sense of both openness to the surrounding community and continuity between the neighborhood and the individual classroom environments. Last summer, the 165-family Kennedy Child Study Center relocated to a new home in East Harlem, occupying two floors of a previously un-renovated 1930’s warehouse building.

Kennedy child study center bronx