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 2010, The Center for Human Services celebrated its Fifty-Fifth 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.

In 1956, local business woman Virginia Flower, reflecting on the success of what was then known as the Crippled Children's Center. asked the rhetorical question: "Can we continue with the excellent program we've started?'

Click here to see Center Director/CEO Ann Graff and many others answer Virginia Flower's question. . See how the love, devotion, and generosity of the citizens of Pettis county, and later Saline and Benton counties, have built 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.

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 moved to a new facility in the Thompson Meadows Industrial Park.

Go to the Family & Child Development page for information on the state of the art children's programs that CHS now provides.

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.

Go to the Employment Services page for details on the programs and services that the workshop, now known as Cooperative Workshops, Inc., provides.

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.

Go to the Community Living page to learn more.

Leadership
The Center for Human Services has members of the community investing their time and energy offering effective leadership by serving on the various cooperating Boards of Directors. Each board performs independently creating a close partnership. The following boards assure the community of the most efficient and operative means for providing the highest quality services for individuals with disabilities.