THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 29, 1995 TAG: 9509290487
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
The city could become the site of an innovative child-care program, thanks to an agreement between Tidewater Community College and an agency that helps disabled babies.
TCC will give the city Infant Intervention Program about an acre of land on the Chesapeake campus to build a center. The center will house all the agency's offices and infant programs, plus a new child-care program that will showcase techniques for helping children develop properly. Disabled youngsters will mingle with their nondisabled peers in the center.
In return, students of TCC Chesapeake's programs for serving young or developmentally disabled children will get hands-on practice in the center. Also, some TCC students and faculty will be allowed to enroll their own children there.
``We have no day-care facilities and have no plans for any,'' said Timothy H. Kerr, provost of TCC's Chesapeake campus. ``This would be a way to provide some in a limited way.''
The state Board for Community Colleges Thursday gave preliminary approval to the arrangement.
The only hurdle for the agency now is raising money for construction of the facility, which is estimated at about 14,000 square feet and a cost of somewhere between $1 million and $1.5 million.
Friends of Chesapeake Infant Services, a group of parents and concerned citizens, will begin soliciting private donations now that the land deal is sealed, said Brenda S. Crockett, program supervisor for the city's Infant Intervention Program. The group already has collected $20,000 from special fund-raisers, Crockett said.
Suffolk is in the process of establishing a similar facility, Crockett said.
The Chesapeake infant agency, established in the early 1980s, now is straddled between two buildings, one on Battlefield Boulevard near the Greenbrier section of the city and another on Outlaw Street in the Crestwood area. The agency's workers must often provide services in peoples' homes, because there is no room in the offices.
``We're having, kind of like, space problems,'' Crockett said. ``Our staff has grown to meet the increasing need.''
Under the agreement, the agency has three years to raise the funds to construct the building. by CNB