CHS - About Us

The Center for Human Services is an umbrella title under which three program areas, Family and Child Development, Employment Services, and Community Living, provide services to children and adults with disabilities. In 2005, The Center for Human Services celebrated its Golden Anniversary. As part of the celebration, the Center produced a video documenting its history and its commitment to maintaining high quality, state of the art services. Click on the parking meter to see the story of a chance meeting of three Sedalia attorneys who were seeking to raise funds for national charities at this parking meter outside a bank in downtown Sedalia. At that meeting, the attorneys realized that by pooling resources, they could establish a local center to serve children with disabilities. They had no way of knowing that the concept of sharing resources in order to serve children, and later adults with disabilities would become the basis for a center that has grown from a classroom with one teacher and nine children to a human services leader that serves hundreds of children and adults with disabilities throughout central Missouri. In the two-part video, long-time CHS CEO Roger Garlich, parents, board members, and Sedalia business leaders tell how that center, known as the Crippled Children's Center, with the support of government, business and industries, service organizations, and the community at large has evolved into the Center for Human Services, .		Click Photo for Video
Early Therapy Session	Children's Services During the early 1950's, local citizens, mirroring national trends, saw the need to provide services closer to home for children with disabilities. At that time, parents were advised to place children with disabilities in institutions or send them to schools in larger cities. So, in 1955, the Crippled Children's Center was established through funds provided by: United Cerebral Palsy March of Dimes Easter Seals the Community That year, nine children received services from one teacher in a former nurses quarters. In 1963, the name was changed to the Children's Therapy Center. Ten years later, the center moved to its own facility. In the fall of 2008, children's services will move to a new facility in the Thompson Meadows Industrial Park. Click on the Family & Child Development button for information on the state of the art children's programs that CHS now provides.	Early Classroom of the Children's Therapy Center
Employment Services The Center has grown and adapted over time as the needs of the people that it served have changed. By the mid 1960's, some individuals who were receiving services were finishing their formal education and needing employment. At the time, it was generally believed that individuals with disabilities were incapable of working. In 1966, the Center's leaders, working with local business, chartered Missouri's first sheltered workshop, where employees work at their own pace and are a paid according to the market value of their work. The workshop's first facility was the old building in east Sedalia shown here. In 1988, the workshop moved to the Ewing Vocational Center in the Sedalia Industrial Park . In 1972, a second facility was opened in Marshall, Missouri, to serve residents of Saline County. Click on the Employment Services link for details on the programs and services that the workshop, now known as Cooperative Workshops, Inc., provides.		Missouri's first sheltered workshop
Community Living In 1979, responding to the need for affordable and safe housing for adults with disabilities, the Community Living program was added. Today, a variety of residential options and support services are available ranging from independent living apartments to facilities with around the clock supports. in 1995, Crestwood Court Apartments opened in Marshall. Missouri. In 2003, Deerbrook Apartments opened in California and Tipton ,Missouri. Click the Community Living link to learn more. .		The Center's First Group Home Tower Farms

Children's Therapy Center, Inc.
Cooperative Workshops, Inc.
Casa Grande, Inc./ Palms Residential, Inc.
Crestwood Court, Inc./ Tradewinds
Pettis County SB40 Board
Saline County SB40 Board
Moniteau County SB40 Board

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