Update On Our Building Expansion
Right now we have a framed schematic on our wall. Does that seem strange? I’ve had to learn to read blueprints because I’ve had to learn to read blueprints! The one on our wall right now is the plan for our ABA expansion. I’ll tell you about it here, but we also have a video on our site so that you can go see it as well. We are so excited about this expansion! We have so many wonderful plans!
Where Our ABA Therapy Building Will Be Located
If you’re familiar with our building you know that we have an empty lot behind us. This is where our ABA expansion will be. We will have a transition point built that connects the back of our current building with the new ABA building. The back lot is actually a little bit higher than the lot our current building is on, so this transition area will be a ramp-up to the new elevation.
Waiting Area and Coffee Bar
On the side of where the new building will be, we currently have the parking lot where the therapists park. We are going to expand this to include a drop-off area for the ABA building, which leads into a large waiting room area. In this waiting area, we’ll have a waiting room, a bathroom, and reception, but we’re also going to have a coffee bar where our young adult clients will be serving the public! We have a really cool coffee machine that is easy to operate, and we have our own coffee mugs and to-go cups! On top of this, we will have some people baking treats for us! We’ll also have wifi and an area where you can hang out or have a meeting!
This coffee and baking service is a nonprofit organization, hosted by Cutting Edge Cares. All donations that we receive here will go back into the coffee bar. We will be collecting donations through Venmo. Serving the public allows our clients to engage the public and gain some valuable skills.
Mock Grocery Store
We will also have a mock grocery store! This will be open to our main therapy center, so clients from the main center will have access to the grocery store.
The Core of The Behavior Center
Past the waiting area, we get into the core of the behavior center. It’s a hub and spoke model where we have a main treatment room in the center and specialized rooms off the main hub. We will have a calming room, for when you’re having a really bad day, and then several individualized treatment rooms. We will also have a giant supply room like we have in our current center. This will let us keep all of the items in a central location, rather than keeping them in all the various treatment rooms. The items will not be accessible unless the therapist determines that they need to be accessible.
Operations Offices
We will have a cluster of offices for our BCBAs and our RBTs, so that they can work together. We will be moving our billing office and some operations staff back to this building as well.
Lunchroom
In addition to all this, we are planning to have a large lunchroom, for our clients who are here for a large portion of the day. We are not open late—our behavior center closes at 3:00 pm—but that’s still a good portion of the day and we want to make sure everyone has access to good food and room to enjoy it in.
Toilet Training
We also do a lot of toilet training, so we will be adding custom-designed bathrooms with every hand dryer, every blow dryer, every kind of lock you can have on a bathroom door, urinals, you name it. We want our clients to be able to experience everything here so that when they go out into the community they are able to generalize that skill.
Young Adult Treatment Center
Finally, we have a room for an adolescent/young adult treatment center. Treatment for these clients happens after school, and we have a two-hour segment for them.
This is an exciting expansion! We should break ground in the next couple of weeks, and we hope to open in April! Check out our video, and ask us any questions you have about this exciting new center!
