Building for the Future Capital Campaign
Born from our most recent master and strategic plans, Cushing is launching a “Building for the Future” Capital Campaign involving 3 key projects.
The Campaign kicks off with two priorities – the renovation and expansion of the St. Coletta Day School in Braintree, Ma, and the renovation of the lower level of the Bethany Apartments - an underutilized space in the Hanover neighborhood – into much-needed offices and work spaces.
The third project of the Campaign will be the creation of an endowment fund, to ensure Cushing has a secure financial future.
St. Coletta Day School - Reimagined
A highlight of the campaign is the renovation of St. Coletta Day School in Braintree, Ma. – a currently unoccupied asset that, once renovated, will allow us to:
- increase enrollment
- support students of younger ages (starting at age 6) and those with behavioral and medical complexities
- create specialized, alternative teaching plans that meet MCAS requirements
Housing these higher-support “Intensive” students in Braintree will allow Cushing’s education programs throughout both the St. Coletta Day School (Braintree) and Cushing School (Hanover) to shift from a generalist model to a more needs-specific specialized approach, and follow current sector trends to mimic typical elementary, middle school, and high school/vocational tracks.
Intensive
Ages as young as 6; significant intellectual needs; behavioral and medical complexities; day program
CORE
Community/Opportunity/Responsibility/Education; “generalist” educational and vocational instruction; day and residential
Transition/Vocational
For ages 18-22; increased independence; development of vocation and employment experience; community connections; day and residential
Office and Workspace Buildout
The second key project is renovating the lower level of a currently underutilized building space into critical offices to accommodate our growth – including work spaces for HR, IT, Training and Finance Departments.
This will not only allow Cushing to better utilize a high-impact building space, but it will also free up other offices in our school building, allowing us to keep school program teams working more closely together. This dovetails perfectly with our Strategic Plan’s directive to have three separate student program tracks. When this project is complete, the Leonard Florence Education Center building will be home to all of Cushing's Track One/CORE program participants.
The Transition/Vocational track will continue to be housed in the new MarketPlace Building.
The Future
Cushing also seeks to create an endowment that will ensure we can take care of these projects, and all of our many buildings, spaces and residential houses for years to come with a reliable, ongoing source of unrestricted funding.
The Friends of Cardinal Cushing Endowment is intended to strengthen our ability to ensure extraordinary teaching, learning, and the capacity to pursue the organization’s strategic goals.
The most pressing strategic goal is that of financial sustainability. Of all the goals outlined in the Cardinal Cushing Centers Strategic Plan, financial sustainability is the one upon which all others depend. A robust endowment safeguards the organization through challenging economic conditions and enables us to innovate and grow during good times.
The annual income and security provided by the endowment:
- Provides a solid financial basis for long-term viability, self-reliance and independence,
- Supports special programs and an overall level of excellence that may not be supported by established fees,
- Provides a reasonable, predictable, stable and sustainable level of income to support capital needs,
- Sustains our programs in the event of an economic downturn.
Your generosity creates meaningful opportunities for students and adults—today and for years to come.
We hope you will consider a gift to help raise $10 million for the Building for the Future Capital Campaign.