Planning for a Community Center

Community Recreation, Resource and Advocacy Center:
A Community Center for People with Developmental Disabilities in Santa Cruz County

Imagine Supported Living Services is developing a Community Center in Santa Cruz County. Organized for the benefit of the community, and composed primarily of people with developmental disabilities and their allies, this Center will be centrally located and involved in activities and projects which contribute to a healthy, strong and diverse Santa Cruz County.

We see a Community Center where people with developmental disabilities and community groups are actively involved in:
• Recreation and Leisure
• Community Service
• The Arts
• Collaborative Services and Supports
• Activities and Classes
• Self-Advocacy

The Community Center will create a meeting place where people with developmental disabilities can explore their interests and present their gifts and talents to others in the community. People with disabilities will come to the center to have a hot meal, learn advocacy skills, develop new friendships, and explore arts and leisure activities. These activities and opportunities do not currently exist in Santa Cruz County for people with developmental disabilities

We need your help!

So much progress has been made over the last six months. With everyone's support, we hope to open the center in the Spring of 2008!

San Andreas Regional Center has accepted our program design and has agreed to fund the membership costs for participants! A special thanks to Santi Rogers, Deb VanCuren and Gina Fiallos for their active support!

We are currently searching for an appropriate building in Santa Cruz that Imagine can lease or own.

A special thanks to Stan and Melinda Parry for their ongoing generosity and the $100,000 challenge grant they have pledged to make the community center a reality!

There are many ways you can support the Community Center!

By Volunteering:
-- To participate in grant writing and donor education to secure initial and ongoing funding for the center.

-- Help us locate an appropriate site for this center.

-- By volunteering to contribute to the day to day functioning of the Community Center, with your time and your in-kind donations of services, activities and areas of expertise.

By Collaborating:
-- Business Partners are being sought to fund specific activities and rooms within the Center’s site.
-- Community groups are encouraged to meet with us to establish memoranda of understandings for the mutual benefit of the Center’s “hosts” (people with developmental disabilities) and those that make up other community groups.

By Donating:
-- To a Capital Campaign to secure an appropriate site, one centrally located, on a major bus line, with adequate parking and an interior space well suited to our needs
-- To an Ongoing Community Center Activities Fund for use by people with disabilities and the other community groups who access the Center.

Imagine our community center

We need your help!