If you’ve driven the Merritt Parkway through Orange, you may already recognize the campus at 584 Derby Milford Road. Once a satellite campus for the University of New Haven, it now has a new future.
Aspire Living & Learning is pleased to share we purchased the property to become a new home for several Aspire programs in Connecticut, including the current ALL Academy in Trumbull, our adult community-based day program and administrative offices currently based in Hamden.
Over the next year, we’ll renovate the campus and create dedicated spaces for each program, with plans to begin programming in summer 2027. And we want to bring you along.
We’ll share what we’re planning, show you the campus as it changes, introduce some of the people helping shape it and create opportunities for families, neighbors, businesses, volunteers, partners and supporters to get involved.
We know we want spaces designed around how people learn, work, build skills and spend their days. We want room for programs to grow and change over time. And we want the campus to become a place that connects Aspire more closely with the community around us.
“We’ve been looking for an opportunity like this in Connecticut,” said Erica Hare, Aspire CEO.
“Orange gives us room to strengthen what we offer today while also thinking about where we want to go next. We can create spaces that better support the work happening now while giving Aspire room to grow and respond to what the people we support and communities around us need in the years ahead.”
ALL Academy will be an important part of those plans.
The school’s current Trumbull program will move to Orange, giving us an opportunity to reimagine what special education can look like. Rather than asking students to fit into a traditional school model, ALL Academy starts with what each student needs to learn, grow and prepare for what comes next. The Orange campus gives us the freedom to build on that approach, explore new ideas and connect learning more closely with each student’sinterests, goals and lives beyond school.
“Special education shouldn’t be about fitting a student into a program. It should be about building the right environment around that student,” said Dr. Elizabeth Sellinger, chief of clinical and children’s services.
“Orange gives us an opportunity to push that thinking further, to be innovative in how students learn and build skills, and to create more pathways for each student to work toward the future they want.”
Our adult community-based day program will also have dedicated space at Orange, as will teams currently working from our Hamden office. Each program will have an environment designed around its own work, with access to the broader expertise and resources across Aspire.
And we’re thinking beyond what Aspire can create on its own.
Many of the opportunities people pursue through Aspire begin with relationships in the community. Employers open doors to jobs and careers. Businesses and community organizations create places to learn, contributeand try something new. Volunteers bring their own skills and interests. Donors can help us do more than we could on our own.
We want Orange to create more of those connections from the start.
While renovations will prepare the campus for the programs moving there, our hopes for Orange go further. With philanthropic support, we can invest in additional spaces, equipment, technology and experiences that expand what people can learn, try and do.
Interested in support the future of our Orange campus? Make a gift today!
“There are so many ways to be part of what we’re creating in Orange,” said John Whittemore, AVP of growth and advancement.
“For some, that might mean becoming an employment partner or volunteering their time and expertise. For others, it might mean making a gift that helps bring an idea for the campus to life. Each can open up new opportunities for the people we support.”
John and Philanthropy Manager Kim Vigliotti will lead this work over the coming year, building relationships with community partners and donors who want to be part of what Orange becomes.
There’s plenty to do before programming begins in August 2027, and this is only the beginning.
Over the coming year, we’ll bring you inside the campus as it changes, share more about the ideas taking shape for ALL Academy and adult services, and introduce you to some of the people behind the work. There will also be opportunities to visit, volunteer, partner with us and help make more possible at Orange.
If you’ve passed the campus from the Merritt before, keep an eye on it. Next time, it might look a little different.