VAN NUYS : Riordan, Chick Join in Opening of Taper Center

Mayor Richard Riordan and Councilwoman Laura Chick joined staff members and supporters Thursday to celebrate the grand opening of a $1.8-million center that will house a unique day-care program in which seniors and young children will work and play together.

Riordan hailed the opening of the Mark Taper Intergenerational Center in Van Nuys as the type of private-public partnership essential to solving the city’s problems as he warned that history will judge America by how well it takes care of its elderly and its youth.

The center, at 17400 Victory Blvd., was built with help from a number of sources, including a $1-million grant from the Mark Taper Foundation.

The center is home to a day-care program for the elderly operated by the Organization for the Needs of the Elderly (ONE) and a child-care program run by the YMCA. Eventually, participating seniors--who typically have major health problems, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, or suffer from severe depression--will intermingle with children from the child-care program.

“The children will get unconditional love and the senior will feel useful again,” said Estelle Cooper, executive director of ONE. “We hope to recreate the sense of community at a time when neighborhoods and extended families are being lost.”

The two-year-old adult-care program has been operating out of the new center since mid-September and has 40 enrollees. It is licensed to handle 90 seniors daily from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The YMCA program is also licensed to enroll 90 children, ages 6 weeks to 5 years of age.

Chick called Thursday’s celebration “an emotional” one for her because of her lengthy involvement with ONE and her work to win the approvals needed to build the center, which is on land leased by the city’s Recreation and Parks Department from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Chick was formerly a member of ONE’s board of directors, and she also worked to further the project as an aide to ex-Councilwoman Joy Picus.

Chick introduced her former boss, Picus, who was in the crowd of well-wishers at Thursday’s event, and acknowledged her important work in helping create the center.

The mayor’s own private Riordan Foundation also donated $25,000 for a preschool room to the child-care program, confirmed Madeline Williamson, spokesperson for ONE.