BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Baton Rouge Speech and Hearing Foundation has launched a campaign to raise $7 million for a new, larger facility where children and adults with communications disorders could receive therapy.
The Advocate reported (http://bit.ly/x8vpzy) that plans are to move the center from its West Roosevelt Avenue site to the LSU Innovation Park.
Executive Director Melissa Juneau also said the center will get a new name: The Emerge Center for Communication, Behavior and Development.
Officials hope to break ground in fall 2012 and move into the new facility in 2014.
The new 26,000-square-foot center will more than double current capacity.
To date, the center has secured financial pledges totaling $4.2 million from donors, including $1.5 million from the Albemarle Foundation; $1 million from the Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation; $500,000 from the Reilly Family Foundation and $250,000 from the Huey and Angelina Wilson Foundation.
The Speech and Hearing Foundation was established 50 years ago to help hearing-impaired children.
Over the years, the center has expanded its services to include speech evaluations and therapy and an intervention program for children with autism.
 
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