In 1972, the Community Habilitation Center opened between Kendall and Sunset with the goal to provide education and opportunity to disabled adults of Miami.
What began as a nursery 54 years ago on Southwest 79th street is now named The Wow Center. It is in the midst of an expansion expected to provide as many as 400 disabled adults of all backgrounds with resources, training, opportunities, and community post high school graduation. The Wow Center works with a variety of adults, aged 21-75+.
Individuals at the Wow Center engage in classes and activities, including art, music therapy, sports, culinary workshops and service opportunities.
But perhaps where the Wow Center shines the most is in its programs that empower, educate, and encourage these adults to take on the world themselves.
“Everybody, all their life has told (these individuals) what to do and how to do it,” said Barbara Valdes, the Wow Center’s Director of Education and Admissions. “They’ve never had the voice to say, ‘I want to do this. I want to succeed in this’, ‘my goal is this’. And that’s what we do here.”
Classes like Community-Based Education (CBE), Life and Community Skills, and Work Experience programs give these individuals lessons on practical life skills (internet safety, budgeting, interpersonal communication, etc). Social service workers and job coaches help prepare the individuals of the Wow Center for employment.
Places like Empower Farms in Homestead and No Limits Coffee Shop in Kendall are just two places that employ adults from the Wow Center.
“The Wow Center’s doing great things, and the fact that we are able to have one of their employees is just amazing. (Our employee) loves being at both places,” said Bella Pazos, No Limit’s Front-of-House Manager.
In the past, No Limits has done tabling with the Wow Center, showing the adults who go there how working with them can be; some of the center’s classes visit the coffee shop and experience how they work.
Wow Center individuals have also gone on to work at Casa Planta, Los Ranchos, Publix, the Ritz Carlton, Catching Up Therapy and the offices of Miami-Dade County Commissioners Natalie Milian Orbis and Renée García (who is also a former state senator) according to Jessie Cáceres, the director of Advancement and Community Impact at the center.
It’s connections like these that help these adults find employment and build a life and career they can be proud of.
Valdes has worked with the special needs community for 30 years, including the last three at the Wow Center. She has seen some individuals grow up and blossom through the services they have received.
“They were told they couldn’t do certain things, or families would get certain information from doctors, telling them it would be impossible to succeed or have a job,” said Valdes. “So to be able to see them flourishing, to see them have jobs, to see them in a program, having friends, participating in different events… has been fulfilling to watch for the past 30 years.”
Currently, the center works with roughly 200 individuals, a number that will soon double as the facility prepares for its first campus expansion, which will likely begin accepting new individuals by Spring 2027.
According to the Florida Senate’s Local Funding Initiative Requests from 2024-25, 2025-26, and 2026-27, approximately $5 million in funds have been requested from the state of Florida to go towards this new building. In addition, Miami Dade County approved another $1.5 million for the project through repurposed bonds.
Funds were also raised through the Wow Center itself, through its Building on a Dream fundraising initiative. While total figures are not publicly available, the center has raised just over $6 million in total contributions between 2022-2024. One recent event, Give Miami Day, which occurred last November, saw $116,888 raised which exceeded their goal of $85,000.
With the new building, the center will reorganize what classes go where, giving individuals the best of both campuses. Classes like CBE, digital literacy, workforce training, and independent living skills will move to this area.
Meanwhile, the original building will remain the home of the center’s recreational activities like sports, art, and music.
The new building also introduces a digital media room where individuals can learn skills like podcasting and photography on top of their existing courses.
“It’s really meant to be kind of like a resource room for all of those different types of activities, because we don’t want to limit the opportunities and skills that we want to provide for our individuals,” said Jessie Cáceres.
The new building will also have a demo kitchen for individuals to learn practical cooking skills for living on one’s own, as well as for any with an outstanding talent to hone them for potential work in hospitality or culinary arts.
“We took a community tour with some of our ‘OG families’. So, families that have been with us for 20 plus years,” said Cáceres. “Having them see what the new building looks like, even though they’ve been with the organization for such a long time, was beautiful to see. There’s still so much ahead. These individuals have so much to look forward to in the new building.”
The Wow Center has been helping the community for over 50 years. Families new and old are excited to welcome the new building and the possibilities it brings.
One guardian, Jaime Jecha, whose brother Sidney goes to the center said, “For the community to see what people like Sidney can do… the sky’s the limit. So my hope and excitement is that these new families coming in get to have this gift that has been brought and built for 50 years.”
There is a lot to have hope for with the center’s expansion. Through its programs, Miami’s special needs population has a place for community, family, and the skills to wow the world.
“Families feel that we touch their lives. It’s the other way around,” Valdes said, reflecting on the individuals she’s worked with. “It’s the way they make us feel. They touch our lives. Because of them, we want to do so much more. We want to advocate, and we want to fight for them.”
To support the Wow Center, you can donate and even volunteer, or just spread the word.
