Feb 15, 2025, Daily Progress: One of Virginia's largest autism institutes expanding Charlottesville HQ
VIA Centers for Neurodevelopment, formerly the Virginia Institute of Autism, is moving ahead with a $5.5 million project to expand its services and footprint in Charlottesville.
One of Virginia’s largest nonprofit providers of educational and behavioral services for children and adults on the autism spectrum is set to expand its headquarters campus in the Charlottesville area.
VIA Centers for Neurodevelopment, formerly the Virginia Institute of Autism, recently launched a capital campaign to cover the final stretch of fundraising to reach its total goal of $5.5 million. With $4.85 million already secured, the group hopes to raise the remaining $650,000 to fund renovations to its newly acquired asset: the 24,000-square-foot facility adjacent to its Center for Adolescent and Adult Autism Services on Hillsdale Drive in Albemarle County just north of Charlottesville.
The building is destined to become the new home for the VIA Day School, a program that serves youth with neurodevelopmental challenges that make it difficult for them to attend public schools or require more intensive care.
The day school has long operated out of five small buildings, totaling 15,000 square feet, on Westwood Road near McIntire Park in the city. The move will allow VIA to grow the program by 40%, Executive Director Ethan Long told The Daily Progress, boosting enrollment from 38 students closer to 80.
“What we’re going to be able to build here is going to be awesome for the students, awesome for the staff and families and school districts,” said Long, gesturing out the window of his office, which from the top floor of the VIA Center directly overlooks the neighboring three-story office building the organization acquired in March 2023.
“I think you’re going to see their education is enhanced,” added Long, a trained child clinical psychologist. “They’re already doing great work, but it’s just when you have purpose-built space, designed to really teach or to help, it’s going to be awesome.” . . .
A key feature of the site will be the “Intensive Neurobehavioral Classroom,” a special unit staffed with medical and behavioral development experts dedicated to supporting people on the autism spectrum whose diagnosis requires them to have around-the-clock care.
“Right now, some of the folks that come to us, they have very high-intensity, challenging behaviors, because they can’t communicate their wants and needs effectively,” said Long. “So the alternative for the school districts and the family is that some of them have to go to like a residential or a hospital facility for 24/7 support.”
With the capacity to serve up to eight students, the new classroom will provide an alternative option for these families, a place to send their child equipped with treatment and educational spaces that can help them stabilize or settle into a routine, said Long, all “in an effort to keep them in their homes.”
Other students attend the day school on a much shorter-term basis, working with one of VIA’s many registered behavioral technicians in the “bridge classroom” to develop appropriate social or communication skills in order to matriculate back into the public school system. . . .
Being able to provide a broader array of amenities is only part of the reason Long is eager to get the new facility online. Roughly 155,000 people in Virginia have been diagnosed with neurodevelopmental challenges, according to the National Institute of Health, and the demand for services to assist this population continues to grow.
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