TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Coming to Tallahassee. A campus where people with developmental disabilities can learn and train for real-life jobs.
It's the vision of a local child care facility and it's about to become a reality.
"Our ultimate goal is to make sure that our kids are successful. That is what we are here for," said Tammy McKenzie, Founder of Progressive Pediatric. "We want to be able to teach in the way that they learn and have them feel successful and independent like everyone else."
Progressive Pediatric in Tallahassee will soon have a new name and a new home, as Lifetown.
"It will be a campus unto its own that will allow families to come with their kids or young adults and learn all the different pieces they need to have in order to be successful," said Kevin Kolka, CEO/Co-Founder of Progressive Pediatric.
Progressive Pediatric's current location is in a business park on Hermitage Boulevard. The organization's three buildings house a school, a child care facility and a therapy center. Lifetown will take operations to a different level.
"We will have a campus solely dedicated to the mission that we have of educating whether it is therapeutically, whether it's on the education side or life-skills and workforce development," said Kolka.
The new campus will also have an education center where kids can learn how to open a bank account, take a bus or go to a movie theater.
Lifetown's founders say the new campus will be for everyone.
"We want to open this up to the community - this is about bringing something to Tallahassee that is different, that's positive, that's reinforcing and getting kids off the couch," said McKenzie.
In the next two to three years, Progressive Pediatric hopes to move to the new stand-alone campus. Progressive Pediatric has two fundraisers coming up this month. One is this weekend.
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