By Joyce Kryszak
Buffalo, NY – United Cerebral Palsy of Western New York has a new identity. The local organization is dropping its national affiliation and changing its name to Aspire. And the human services agency will soon move to a new, more visible location.
Thousands of severely disabled adults and children are served by the former local UCP agency every day. And officials say that will continue. But with a new identity and at a new location.
Tom Sy, executive director for the newly named Aspire, says there was virtually no benefit to keeping their national affiliation.
"Our dues were going to go up significantly by about $50,000," Sy said. "We felt the return was no longer able to justify that."
He says keeping Cerebral Palsy in the name also didn't represent all the work the 55- year-old organization now does. Only 35 percent of the clients now served have cerebral palsy. The majority suffer from a variety of other developmental disabilities.
Services for all clients will remain the same. But Sy says they will be better than ever at the agency's future location on North Forest Road in Amherst. He says the current location for day rehabilitation on Genesee Street was inadequate.
"We've been in that space for a number of years. There are no windows and no green space opportunities for our consumers," Sy said. "We needed to take a step and move forward to find a more ideal location."
He says their new 38,000-square foot home will be ready by July. The administrative offices will also move under the same roof. All but about $150,000 has been raised for the $2.6 million building. But Sy says coming up with the rest of the money will now also be easier with their new, more visible identity.