Support the Northern Valley Career and Professional Learning Center

The Northern Valley Career and Professional Learning Center is a new 7,000-square-foot building at Northern Valley Central in Norwood, home of the Valley Program. It will give our young adult students with autism a dedicated place to learn career and life skills before they graduate. Students will run a coffee shop and mini market, prepare food in the kitchen, operate a wash-and-fold laundry service, set up rooms, prepare workshop materials, and staff the reception desk.

The Center will also be the permanent home for professional learning across the eight Northern Valley districts, hosting more than 110 training sessions a year for over 1,000 educators. For years, that work has moved between borrowed rooms in churches, libraries, and school media centers. The building is funded. Our goal is to raise $175,000 for the furnishings, technology, and appliances that turn it into a working space.

This fundraising effort gives families, alumni, local businesses, and community members the opportunity to make voluntary contributions in support of the Center. Gifts of any size are welcome, and all contributions will be used to furnish and equip the Center for our students and staff. Sponsors at $2,500 and above will be recognized on a permanent sponsor wall, and rooms are available for naming. 

Who will see it. The Center will host more than 110 training sessions a year for over 1,000 educators from the eight Northern Valley districts and neighboring districts, with 25 to 50 participants at each. That is an estimated 2,750 to 5,500 visits a year, or about 41,000 to 82,500 over a 15-year room naming. A $50,000 Room Sponsor pays about $3,300 a year over that term.