Coming a full circle

The Bell Center’s early intervention work for children with special needs started in a classroom at Trinity United Methodist Church.

As the organization waits for its new building to be constructed, it has found a temporary home back where it started, this time at Trinity’s Oakmont campus on Oak Grove Road.

“It’s kind of this really sweet little circle to come back and for them to allow us to use that space,” program director Kameron Carden said. “That’s where Betty [Bell] startedher work.”

Along with the new building, which will be built on the Bell Center’s current location at 1700 29th Court S., Carden is another major addition to the operations of the center.

Carden was hired as program director in March, after working for several months in a temporary maternity leave position. Her role includes working with new families to get evaluated and start their early intervention classes, as well as making sure the staff has what they need and addressing any parent concerns.

“I have been so taken by the Bell Center that whether we were here or Trinity or a new building, I am just so thankful to be here,” Carden said.

The Bell Center has a staff of around 25 people, Carden said, and offers specialized programs for infants and toddlers to learn speech, motor skills and specialized challenges such as self-feeding and socializing. Carden said each class of children is led by a “trans-disciplinary team” that includes a speech pathologist, physical therapist, occupational therapist and an early childhood special education teacher.

Carden’s own background is in speech pathology and auditory verbal education, a career she found after growing up with and teaching her deaf younger sister. She holds a master’s in speech-language pathology from the University of Florida, as well as certifications of Clinical Competence in speech-language pathology from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and as an Auditory-Verbal Educator from the AG Bell Academy for Listening and Spoken Language.

Carden previously worked with the Alabama School for the Deaf before taking a speech pathology position at the Bell Center. Her husband, Nathan, is a Methodist minister whose work with Trinity UMC brought the family to the Homewood area. He is now pastor at the Church at Ross Bridge, and the Cardens and their three children — Henry, Amelia and Hanna — live in Ross Bridge as well.

Carden said she “truly, truly fell in love with” the Bell Center during her temporary role, which made it easy to accept the program director position. As a minister’s wife, Carden said she has plenty of experience in moving, and she brought those experiences to bear when the Bell Center closed its doors in May.

After the last day of the spring programs on May 17, the staff of the Bell Center packed and moved to their temporary home at Trinity Oakmont.

Oakmont pastor Jack Hinnen said the church, also called Trinity West Homewood, is often a host site for programs from addiction recovery and financial planning to dog obedience classes. The decision to host the Bell Center while their new building is constructed was an easy one, Hinnen said.

“We’ve worked really hard to make Trinity Oakmont a church that is outward facing rather than inward facing,” Hinnen said. “We think that’s part of being a good neighbor.”

However, it was a project that took some planning. Carden said the Bell Center is occupying two infant rooms and two toddler rooms at Trinity, just like at the Bell Center, plus some shared office spaces, “so the actual therapy space is not totally dissimilar,” she said.

But making room for those classes required Trinity to get some rooms clean and ready as well as find storage space to house the Bell Center’s supplies and items that were kept in the rooms that the Bell Center team will occupy for the next year. Plus, some rooms at the church will have to pull double duty.

“Some of our spaces will be the Bell Center during the week, you know, and then it’ll be the church on the weekends or during evening activities. So we’re having to think of creative ways to share resources or staff or space,” Hinnen said.

Carden said the Bell Center is offering its full range of programs during the summer term with only minor adjustments to accommodate the new space. Depending on how the summer term goes, Carden said they plan to offer as much of their normal range of therapy services as possible in the fall and spring.

The Bell Center is anticipating moving into its new building in May 2019. The center was not ready to share specifics of the plans for the building, but Carden said it is intended to provide better and newer spaces for the center’s programs and staff.

The City Council on March 12 approved the rezoning of the Bell Center and its neighboring property, 1708 29th Court S. from Office Building and Central Business District to Institutional District. A residence on the neighboring property will be demolished as part of the project.

The plans for the new building, which were presented to the Board of Zoning Adjustments on March 1, show the new building will be built across the two lots. Walter Schoel Engineering is working with the Bell Center to construct its new home.

Hinnen said that after the Bell Center moves into its new building in 2019, he hopes the relationship with Trinity Oakmont will continue through volunteering and other connections.

“I’m kind of excited about them being here for a year because it means we’ll have the Bell Center taken care of and children and people here who are doing great work, and we get to kind of support what they’re doing,” Hinnen said. “Even after the Bell Center leaves, I hope it’s the kind of relationship that will continue to support the Bell Center after they go.”