Hills & Dales Acquires Building for New Autism Center, Expansion

Hills & Dales — a non-profit with a nearly 50 year history of building meaningful lives for individuals with disabilities — has announced they've acquired a new building in Dubuque's West End. It will serve as the home of a new state of the art center for autism services.

Per a press release, the building, located at 1660 Embassy Drive, will not only serve as a center for autism resources, but also as "an expansion of the program designed for various services provided by the organization now and into the future."

Hills & Dales is "a not-for-profit human services organization that provides services to children and young adults with disabilities throughout Eastern Iowa," per their website.

The building purchase will be partially funded through a $1.25 million state innovative non-profit infrastructure grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority, per the press release. Hills & Dales expresses the sincerest gratitude for the support they and the project have received from the respective authority, state leaders, and legislators.

The larger and enhanced space will make it much easier for Hills & Dales to better support children with autism as well as their families in the eastern Iowa area. The need for expansion comes at a time when the current rate of autism diagnoses is at 1-in-44 children. The new center will be home to existing autism clinics and become the hub of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy.

Furthermore, Hills & Dales mission has compassion in mind to its core. It "revolves around building meaningful lives for individuals with disabilities by offering services that support the whole person and enhance community inclusion," according to their website.

CEO Jack Mescher expressed immense gratitude and honor at the expansion, per the press release:

We are excited and proud to build-out services for individuals with autism. Our most important mission is to build meaningful lives for individuals with disabilities and the availability of our services for the clients and families who rely on them cannot be overstated.

To learn more about Hills & Dales programs and services, visit their website or call 563-556-7878. Hills & Dales was also Kwik Stop's "Kwik Care" recipient of the month in May 2022.