Family and Children’s Aid (FCA) celebrated the opening of its new Child Guidance Center at 80 West St. on Oct 15.

  The two-story, 16,000 square foot space is complete with an indoor play area as part of the initiative called “Project Joy.” It will house the Child Guidance program that Family and Children’s Aid offers.

The program provides therapeutic care to children, 2 to 18, as well as families in Western and Central Connecticut who need the services.  Licensed professionals encourage physical activity of the children as therapy. The center’s new play space holds a Lego room and a wall-climbing area.  There is also a corn box, as opposed to a sandbox, as sand was too heavy and could be too easily spread throughout the room.

“This is a first-rate organization: outstanding people and our communities doing hard work.  They are truly deserving of your support tonight,” said Paul Bossidy, the CEO of Clayton Holdings and president of the FCA Foundation Board.  “I think the nicest aspect of this facility is that it will go on forever.”

The FCA, a community-based, nonprofit organization founded in 1809, has provided mental health services to Connecticut since 1973.  The organization has offices in Danbury, New Milford, Waterbury, Shelton, Torrington, Bridgeport and New Britain.

Other speakers at the grand opening celebration included Dr. Irvin Jennings, the executive and medical director of the FCA, and Steve Gross, founder of the Life is Good Playmakers which has partnered with FCA since 2006.

An international group, Life is Good Playmakers provides innovative training and support to frontline child care professionals dedicated to helping children overcome life-threatening challenges, including violence, illness and extreme poverty.

Gross led the audience in a dancing and hugging activity.  This game echoed the confidence-building physical activities that children in the FCA’s programs take part in for therapeutic purposes.

“Just for a second please humor me and take a look around this room.  Just look around. This is the new vision and the new bar for children’s mental health for some of the most wounded and hurt children in our world.  And this is where they get to go when it’s time to get counseled,” said Gross.

Gross asked the audience what, as parents, they wanted most for their children.  The room replied with one word: “happiness.”

Also present were members of the Sigma Chi chapter of Western Connecticut State University.  To date, it has donated nearly $15,000 to the FCA.  Nick Hoffman, director of Development and Public Relations at FCA, is an alumnus of Sigma Chi.

The large yellow building is covered in pictures of hands, a symbol of the organization based on the tradition of children writing their names on hand cutouts.  Many of these cutouts line the walls inside the center.

The FCA also has safe homes for families in need of temporary financial security and children who are the victims of abuse or behavioral disorders.

“This is a done deal what we celebrate tonight,” said Jennings, who began at the FCA in 1975 and became its executive director in 1992.  “We have plans to open a preschool, and the preschool will focus on foster children.”