NEWS
SOUTHAMPTON — Tucked away in a campus off Route 72, a safe place has opened for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities to work on better communicating with the world around them.
Lester Place offers out-of-home treatment for special needs children with severe mental or behavioral issues that make it difficult for their families to care for them. Children stay in three five-bedroom houses and are treated by a variety of specialists and nurses, with the purpose of returning home once they are ready.
The 70-acre campus is Legacy Treatment Services' first long-term outpatient program for youths with special needs. Legacy, based in Hainesport, has a variety of short-term offerings for children and adults across the state, including the Tamayo House in Mount Holly for children.
It also has programs targeting drug and alcohol addiction, crisis management, homelessness and foster care.
Lester Place is the agency’s next step in serving children who need help, but who may not be able to find treatment easily because of their challenges, Legacy CEO Roy Leitstein said. Some are nonverbal or have behavioral issues that make it difficult to communicate with their families or caregivers.
At Lester Place, specialists are trained to communicate with the children regardless of disability.
“We’re able to serve intellectually and developmentally disabled children that probably struggle to find help in New Jersey,” Leitstein said.
The campus opened July 1 and will serve 15 children. Nine are already living there, but one or two children will move in each week until the home reaches capacity.
Families are allowed to visit the children whenever they’d like. The goal of the program is to reunite children with their families once they have made progress and can transition to home care.
“We don’t view this as a child’s home. Their home is their home. They’re here for treatment,” Leitstein said.
Before Lester Place was established, the property had been vacant for two years following the departure of Vision Quest, another outpatient facility.
Legacy won a competitive bid from the New Jersey Department of Children and Families to establish a long-term outpatient program for youths with intellectual and developmental disabilities on the property, which was owned by the state.
The department funds the program while Legacy leases and maintains the property.
Leitstein empathizes with youths served by Legacy partly because he was abused as a child. He said he is honored to give help to children who need it most.
“It’s what gets me up each morning,” he said. “I’m only in the position I’m in because of caring adults and friends and family that helped me when I was a kid.”
Danielle DeSisto: 609-871-8050; email: [email protected]; Twitter: @DeSistoBCT