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United Cerebral Palsy of Central Arizona in Phoenix marks Center’s 20th year
(Photo provided by Amy Wolff PR)
United Cerebral Palsy of Central Arizona’s Laura Dozer Center in North Phoenix is celebrating 20 years of service in the Valley this March.
Posted
Special to Independent Newsmedia
United Cerebral Palsy of Central Arizona’s Laura Dozer Center in North Phoenix is celebrating 20 years of service in the Valley this March.
Located at 19th Avenue and Pinnacle Peak Road, the Laura Dozer facility has provided physical, occupational, speech and feeding therapy to thousands of children and hundreds of adults who have been part of the facility’s day treatment center since opening in 2003.
The center was originally built thanks to the generosity of Rich and Karie Dozer, Valley philanthropists who focus their giving on many causes including health and human services for the underserved in Arizona. The Dozers brought together community partners, including Jerry and Joan Colangelo of the Phoenix Suns, to secure the resources needed to build the new center.
The campus, named after the Dozers’ late daughter, Laura Grace, was designed to meet the needs of children and adults with disabilities and their families.
“I feel like UCP is one of the Valley’s greatest kept secrets,” Karie Dozer stated in a press release. “Our journey began when Laura was about 18 months old. We took her to a UCP facility in central Phoenix where the therapists were over-the-top amazing, but the facility was small and not very inviting. I still remember wishing the facility was brighter and bigger. So, we set our minds to it and made it happen. Now here we are, 20 years later.”
UCP of Central Arizona is at 1802 W. Parkside Lane, in Phoenix.
In 1992, service hours at UCP of Central Arizona were roughly 27,000 hours a year. In 2001, before the Laura Dozer facility opened, demand for services increased to 153,000 hours annually.
Today UCP of Central Arizona continues to grow. In 2023, service hours at the nonprofit organization’s two Valley locations exceed 250,000 hours annually for all programs combined.
As one of the state’s oldest private, nonprofit health and human service organizations, UCP of Central Arizona provides service to individuals with an array of disabilities including cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome, sensory processing disorder, genetic disorders, orthopedic disabilities, birth defects, effects of in-utero drug or alcohol exposure, traumatic brain injuries and developmental delays.
The Laura Dozer Center is a full-service site that is home to the Early Learning Center, which offers a learning environment for 53 children with and without disabilities from six weeks to five years.
It also has a Day Treatment and Training for Adults program that serves 34 adults annually with severe developmental disabilities in a center-based setting at the North Phoenix campus.
