Center for Disabled Children Finds New Home in Santa Ana

The Intervention Center for Early Childhood, one of the largest programs in Orange County for developmentally disabled children, has found a new location after being threatened with closure.

The center will move to a 4,800-square-foot facility in the Brookhollow Business Park in Santa Ana on Dec. 17, officials said Wednesday.

Since 1982, the center has rented 3,500 square feet of classroom space on Bonita Canyon Drive in Irvine from the South Coast Community Church, which merged with Mariners Church of Newport Beach to become Mariners South Coast Church, a congregation of more than 5,500.

In June, the church’s administration announced that it would not renew the center’s lease when it expired Oct. 1, citing a need for the space.

The church gave the center until Dec. 31 to find a new home.

Pam Sears, the center’s executive director, said that finding a facility was a challenge because of the program’s unusual requirements.

At one point, she said, officials feared that the center might have to shut down.

The staff of 18 teachers and therapists help children from birth to age 3 who have disabilities that include autism, cerebral palsy, drug exposure and Down syndrome.

The center is lauded by many Orange County parents for its unusual approach.

In addition to providing extensive therapy for children, the program offers support groups and guidance for parents and siblings.

The approach makes it the only facility of its kind in the county, according to officials at the Regional Center of Orange County, a referral agency that also distributes state funds for such programs.

Officials there said that other county resources would have become severely strained if the Intervention Center for Early Childhood had shut down.