Concord: Day program for developmentally disabled forced to move

May 21--CONCORD -- After losing its lease, a day program for developmentally disabled adults must move out of the space near Todos Santos Plaza it has occupied for 15 years.

The ALIVE program, an acronym for Active Living and Involved in a Variety of Endeavors, serves about 40 people from its ground-floor suite in Salvio Pacheco Square, on Salvio Street.

JCM Partners, which manages the building, notified the program in January 2014 that its lease was scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The firm extended the rental agreement until the end of June to give ALIVE time to find a new home, according to Will Sanford, executive director of Futures Explored, the umbrella organization that oversees ALIVE and several other programs for people with developmental disabilities.

The organization will split between two new locations -- a building a few blocks away on Salvio Street that staffers have converted to a combination art studio and gallery space, and a building on Port Chicago Highway across the street from Diablo Creek Golf Course.

ALIVE teaches independent living skills such as financial management, cooking and health and safety training to people with disabilities. The program also strives to foster mobility among the participants, some of whom use wheelchairs, by taking them on outings.

The downtown Concord location was ideal because it's close to restaurants, shops and the Concord BART station, said Heather Hackett, regional director for central and eastern Contra Costa County.

"We're hoping and working really hard on having very little change to what we do," Hackett said. "That location was top-notch for that, we could literally walk or roll out that front door and have everything at our fingertips."

Hackett said it's difficult to leave the current location.

"We don't want to create any undue anxiety in the people we support; service won't be interrupted," she said. "The only thing that's going to change is where you are dropped off in the morning and picked up in the afternoon. That's really important for us to make sure families and participants understand."

Lisa P. White covers Concord and Pleasant Hill. Contact her at 925-943-8011. Follow her at Twitter.com/lisa_p_white.

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