Rep. Molinaro tours new Achieve facility in Norwich
Congressman Marc Molinaro with Achieve employees and community leaders in the new Achieve facility. When completed, the facility will include nine day service rooms, an activity center, kitchens and a cafe for job skills training, a nursing station, a community center, and more. (Photo by Sarah Genter)
NORWICH — On Monday, December 18, Congressman Marc Molinaro visited the new Achieve facility, located at 96-100 East Main Street in Norwich.
Achieve is a nonprofit organization that aims to provide skill advancement, inclusion, independence, and socialization for individuals with developmental and other disabilities. They serve more than 2,200 individuals in Broome, Chenango, and Tioga Counties.
The new facility is being built in a former CWS packaging plant, which shut its doors in 2021 after nearly 50 years of operation. The 24,000 square-foot renovation will create a 200 capacity, multi-purpose meeting space; a cafe and kitchen for job skills training; nine day service rooms; an activity center; a clinical services space; a nursing station; improved accessibility additions, including Hoyer lift systems; and a community center that will be open to the public.
During Monday’s tour, Achieve employees and other community representatives toured the in-progress facility with Congressman Molinaro to show how far the renovation has come and to explain their plans and hopes for the future.
Achieve CEO Amy Howard emphasized the organization’s focus on workforce training and occupational preparation for individuals with disabilities, which they will help foster through the construction of kitchens for a culinary arts program, and a cafe that will be open to the public.
“The vision is to create an innovative culinary arts program where people with disabilities can build a skilled career path, and my goal is to work with the department of labor and actually get this as an apprenticeship program, because there’s none, for people with disabilities especially,” explained Achieve COO Jill LoVuolo.
Molinaro said the kitchens and training would not just help individuals enter the workforce, but also provide them valuable skills that will help them live independently.
“A lot of individuals with intellectual, physical, and developmental disabilities don’t have repetitive or even the access to some of these skills at home or, sadly, through school,” he said. “Even to live with support in a residence, they may not know how to do laundry or don’t repeat it often enough to do it.”
“These are life skills that they just don’t get otherwise.”
One of the larger features of the new facility is the approximately 2,500 square foot community center, which will be open for public use.
“This is a community center that we have built in here that’s going to be open to all the community to use. We’ve looked at individuals, people who are disabled and non-disabled, to work at it and be able to invite the community in, serve food, all that kind of thing,” said Howard. “So Rotary, community groups, NBT Bank if they need a meeting space, whoever. They can come in, we’ll have this social area out here.”
Other additions to the project Achieve and community leaders hope to include are a senior center and daycare center.
“If the seniors need help, there’s no place them,” said Commerce Chenango President and CEO Sal Testani. “There’s no place for them to go to socialize and interact.”
The Place Executive Director Sharon Vesely shared the need for daycare services in the county, and the impact a daycare center at the new Achieve facility could have. She said the center they have planned could care for up to 56 children and employ 10 to 17 staff members.
In addition to the daycare center, Howard and Vesely would also like to construct an inclusive playground for children with and without disabilities.
“We want the playground area for the children in the daycare to be an inclusive playground for children with disabilities and without disabilities,” said Howard. “Ideally we could have a few slots for children with disabilities for after-school services.”
Achieve already has shovel-ready plans for the center, but need an estimated $2.1 million for the center and $100,000 for the playground. Molinaro provided the organization with ideas for funding, including Community Project Funding grants, Dormitory Authority of the State of New York dollars, or even leveraging Micron Technology Inc. for investment.
In total, the entire facility renovation is estimated to cost around $4.6 million, and is being paid for through a combination of grant funding, over $1 million in reserves from previous property sales, a $75,000 donation from NBT Bank along with other community donors, and a lead gift of $500,000 from the Achieve Foundation.
Howard credits much of the project’s planning to Molinaro’s Think Differently Initiative, which was launched in 2015 to help break down barriers for individuals with disabilities.
“This kind of thinking began for this organization, honest, when you came to visit us five or six years ago down in Binghamton,” said Howard. “We really started to really embrace and think forward about the programming that we did and really do it the right way.”
Construction on the facility began in March of this year, and Howard said they’re on track to complete the renovations by the end of the year, with plans for a ribbon cutting in April of 2024.
More information on Achieve can be found at AchieveNY.org, or on the Achieve Facebook page.
Achieve is a nonprofit organization that aims to provide skill advancement, inclusion, independence, and socialization for individuals with developmental and other disabilities. They serve more than 2,200 individuals in Broome, Chenango, and Tioga Counties.
The new facility is being built in a former CWS packaging plant, which shut its doors in 2021 after nearly 50 years of operation. The 24,000 square-foot renovation will create a 200 capacity, multi-purpose meeting space; a cafe and kitchen for job skills training; nine day service rooms; an activity center; a clinical services space; a nursing station; improved accessibility additions, including Hoyer lift systems; and a community center that will be open to the public.
During Monday’s tour, Achieve employees and other community representatives toured the in-progress facility with Congressman Molinaro to show how far the renovation has come and to explain their plans and hopes for the future.
Achieve CEO Amy Howard emphasized the organization’s focus on workforce training and occupational preparation for individuals with disabilities, which they will help foster through the construction of kitchens for a culinary arts program, and a cafe that will be open to the public.
“The vision is to create an innovative culinary arts program where people with disabilities can build a skilled career path, and my goal is to work with the department of labor and actually get this as an apprenticeship program, because there’s none, for people with disabilities especially,” explained Achieve COO Jill LoVuolo.
Molinaro said the kitchens and training would not just help individuals enter the workforce, but also provide them valuable skills that will help them live independently.
“A lot of individuals with intellectual, physical, and developmental disabilities don’t have repetitive or even the access to some of these skills at home or, sadly, through school,” he said. “Even to live with support in a residence, they may not know how to do laundry or don’t repeat it often enough to do it.”
“These are life skills that they just don’t get otherwise.”
One of the larger features of the new facility is the approximately 2,500 square foot community center, which will be open for public use.
“This is a community center that we have built in here that’s going to be open to all the community to use. We’ve looked at individuals, people who are disabled and non-disabled, to work at it and be able to invite the community in, serve food, all that kind of thing,” said Howard. “So Rotary, community groups, NBT Bank if they need a meeting space, whoever. They can come in, we’ll have this social area out here.”
Other additions to the project Achieve and community leaders hope to include are a senior center and daycare center.
“If the seniors need help, there’s no place them,” said Commerce Chenango President and CEO Sal Testani. “There’s no place for them to go to socialize and interact.”
The Place Executive Director Sharon Vesely shared the need for daycare services in the county, and the impact a daycare center at the new Achieve facility could have. She said the center they have planned could care for up to 56 children and employ 10 to 17 staff members.
In addition to the daycare center, Howard and Vesely would also like to construct an inclusive playground for children with and without disabilities.
“We want the playground area for the children in the daycare to be an inclusive playground for children with disabilities and without disabilities,” said Howard. “Ideally we could have a few slots for children with disabilities for after-school services.”
Achieve already has shovel-ready plans for the center, but need an estimated $2.1 million for the center and $100,000 for the playground. Molinaro provided the organization with ideas for funding, including Community Project Funding grants, Dormitory Authority of the State of New York dollars, or even leveraging Micron Technology Inc. for investment.
In total, the entire facility renovation is estimated to cost around $4.6 million, and is being paid for through a combination of grant funding, over $1 million in reserves from previous property sales, a $75,000 donation from NBT Bank along with other community donors, and a lead gift of $500,000 from the Achieve Foundation.
Howard credits much of the project’s planning to Molinaro’s Think Differently Initiative, which was launched in 2015 to help break down barriers for individuals with disabilities.
“This kind of thinking began for this organization, honest, when you came to visit us five or six years ago down in Binghamton,” said Howard. “We really started to really embrace and think forward about the programming that we did and really do it the right way.”
Construction on the facility began in March of this year, and Howard said they’re on track to complete the renovations by the end of the year, with plans for a ribbon cutting in April of 2024.
More information on Achieve can be found at AchieveNY.org, or on the Achieve Facebook page.
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