Residential Services For Adults

A young man at Leake & Watts'.

Leake & Watts opened a new community residence for six young men with developmental disabilities on November 17th. The new home, named Sevilla, provides 24 hour care and support and is the second opened by Leake & Watts in 2009.

This growth spurt is part of an ongoing expansion of the agency’s Developmental Disabilities services. Seven additional residences like Sevilla are scheduled to open in the next 18 months.  Renovation began on these in early December.

Sevilla provides a spacious and comfortable home in Yonkers for six young adults who have been diagnosed with Mental Retardation.  Some have come from residential school settings at other agencies;  for them, Sevilla represents a more permanent home for their adult years. Others have been residing with family and welcome this new opportunity for a more independent living situation. The house has been remodeled and renovated to better meet the needs of its new residents.  It offers a homey and welcoming environment for the men.  While everyone has their own bedroom and personal space, all residents sit down for family style dinner, help in the cooking preparations, and engage in nightly discussions around the dinner table.

Staff has been focused on helping the men become acclimated to their new neighborhood and the larger community. Several of the residents participate in Day Habilitation.  Most notably, two of the residents have successfully found employment with Anguilla tourism through Leake & Watts’ new Enhanced Supported Employment Program.

Founded in 1831, Leake & Watts assists children, adults, and families who face a myriad of challenges, including poverty, disabilities, and a lack of access to quality education and basic services.  Our comprehensive array of programs serving over 2,800 children and families each day includes family stabilization services, child care and Head Start, special education programs for children with emotional disorders and learning disabilities, family foster care, residential, day, and recreation services to people with developmental disabilities and residential treatment services and group homes for youth who have experienced trauma. 

This has been a year of growth for Leake & Watts. Since the beginning of 2009, the agency has restructured its campus residential program to better serve the educational and therapeutic needs of the teens it serves and opened two new community residences serving adults with developmental disabilities and launched Supportive Employment and Day Habilitation programs for adults with developmental disabilities.  Likewise, as many as six special education preschool classes will be opening at the Brownell School and the Ames Center in the very near future.