Habilitation Center to get $2.2 million cultural arts building
PALM SPRINGS — A $2.2 million Cultural Arts building will be built on the Palm Springs campus of The Palm Beach Habilitation Center by June 2019.
“The focus on the building will be to integrate the arts and all aspects of our program,” said David Lin, the Center’s chief executive officer. “We’ve found that an individual’s perspective on their world around them and their life satisfaction improves when they are exposed to the arts.”
For more than half a century the center, at 4522 S. Congress Ave., has been providing services to adults with developmental, emotional and physical disabilities so that they can achieve their greatest level of independence.
There are about 150 people who use the center’s current arts program.
The building will provide both group and individual activities to help participants learn more about themselves and to improve their ability to work with others.
On Friday, State Rep, David Silvers, D-West Palm Beach, along with state Sen. Bobby Powell, presented Lin with a $500,000 check from the state for the project. The center is also scheduled to receive $1 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Lin said.
Activities in the 12,000-squarefoot building will include paintings, drawings, photography, dance and other visual arts, Lin said, adding the site will help center participants find creative ways to express themselves.
“It will help them to communicate their thoughts and ideas to others,” Lin said. “We’re trying to incorporate a variety of arts into the programs we provide.”
Construction is scheduled to start this year. Lin said the center is still looking to raise money to build the site.
“We’re still getting the pricing together from our contractors,” he said.
The site will also be hurricane hardened to serve as a shelter during a hurricane.
“Participants will have somewhere safe to go,” Lin said.
It’s important to continue to develop the programs and services the Center provides, Lin said.
“By incorporating the arts into the program, it will help to enrich the lives of the people we’re working with,” he said.
The building will provide both group and individual activities to help participants learn more about themselves and to improve their ability to work with others.