The nonprofit OCA, which stands for Opportunity, Community and Ability, will open a second location in Longwood in June. The opening will begin with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 3, followed by programs launching on June 8 for youth and adults.
When it's up and running, the new campus aims to help more than 300 individuals. Margaret Newman Thornton, the COO and co-founder of OCA, said she likes to think of OCA as programs that are offered outside of a classroom setting.
“We have a theater company, we have a special Olympics team, we have an early intervention classroom,” Newman Thornton said. “We have after school, we have camp, we've had jam band, and then we wrap that all up in a nice bow with our ABA approach, our therapeutic approach, so that everything is evidence based.”
Once launched, the new campus will offer things like youth summer camp sessions and programs for adults. Newman Thornton said the nonprofit tries to encourage that “education never stops, growth never stops.”
The adult-centered programs include tracks for those out of high school education who, according to OCA, are “ready to take the next step toward greater independence, purpose, and community participation.”
Individual therapy services are also available. Starting in August, the new location will also offer after school programs for students in the surrounding area.
“There's something different happening every 30 minutes,” said Newman Thornton. “We balance life skills and physical fitness and teaching executive functioning and giving access to vocational training opportunities and vocational training sites in the community and really coordinating a day that supports your needs and interests. We like to speak to our consumers and find out what they're interested in and then make that happen.”
OCA’s opened up its headquarters in 2009 off of Lee Road in Orlando. The new campus’s location will be at 280 S. Ronald Reagan Blvd. in Longwood.
“Right now, many people know there are 23,000 people in Florida on a wait list for med waiver support services,” Newman Thornton said. “But what they don't know is how many of them are right here. And in Seminole County, registered with UCF Center for Autism and Related Disorders is 4,200 plus individuals just in Seminole County. In Seminole County schools right now, 1,300 students have a primary diagnosis of autism, and there are no services. So, we are so happy to bring the fun we've been having for years and the success stories to a community that's growing and needs us to be there.”
