CORA’s ready
to make a move

By Elizabeth Stieber
Times Staff Writer

Amid the construction of the new CORA building is a sign that reads A Brand New CORA With the Same Old Heart!
It was one of the first things erected as construction began last year to remind passers-by and staff that, although CORA’s moving into a new building, it will still offer a plethora of services to the community.
In fact, the non-profit organization may even be able to serve the public even better in the modern, more-efficient building that its board helped to design.
"The great thing is, it’s given us a chance to design it from the ground up," said Dr. Anthony Chunn, the CEO of the human-services agency.
Chunn gave a few employees a tour of the almost-finished building last week. The move will occur in the next few weeks.
CORA’s goal is to have the Early Years day-care program move in on Sept. 7, with the rest of the programs to follow a week or two later, Chunn said.
Construction of the $8 million, 45,000-square-foot building began last spring and continues today in the shadow of the old building on the sprawling property.
The Sisters of the Good Shepherd, which founded CORA 33 years ago, sold the 66-acre property at Susquehanna Road near Verree to the Holy Redeemer Healthcare System in 1998. Holy Redeemer plans to build medical offices and residential space for senior citizens on the property.
CORA — short for Counseling Or Referral Assistance — leases its current building from Holy Redeemer, but a new structure was deemed necessary to fulfill the growing needs that confront the aging center. A provision in the 1998 sale stated that five acres would be reserved for CORA to construct a new facility.
For five years, CORA has been raising money for the construction through private, corporate and foundation donations.
The agency received a $3.74 million grant from the Pennsylvania Redevelopment Capital Assistance Fund. And local legislators have supported CORA throughout its fund-raising campaign, including state Reps. Dennis O’Brien (R-169th dist.) and John Perzel (R-172nd dist.), who helped to secure the state grant, which was awarded by then-Gov. Mark Schweiker.
The new center will accommodate all of CORA’s programs, including counseling, psychological, speech and education services, career development, drugs and alcohol assistance, crisis intervention and teen prevention programs, a child-care center and a day camp.
The three-story facility will provide space for individual and group counseling, classrooms, a career center, study areas, speech and language therapy, computer labs and offices. There will also be outdoor space for activities.
During the tour, Early Years educators Bridget Furlow and Terri LaPenta peered through the hallways and spaces that soon will be occupied by the dozens of youngsters they look after every day.
They jotted notes: the bright colors of the walls and carpet, a description of the areas that will hold the kids’ coats, the location of the laundry facilities and kitchen.
"So far, I like it," Furlow said.
A playground will allow the children to get outside on nice days. Even the stairs leading to the next floor are kid-friendly — the steps are shorter, and there is an extra railing for the pint-size youngsters.
Lorraine Karpowicz, an educator for CORA’s Career Development Resource Center, which shares the same floor as Early Years, said she was impressed with the progress as she checked out the new space. Describing the new digs as "modernized," she said, "It gives us more of a sense of wanting to work with the kids now."
The other floors were designed to comfortably fit the other programs and offices. The conference room is separated from the lunch room with a divider that can be retracted to accommodate a large conference.
From the 25 interviewing rooms to the energy-efficient heating and air-conditioning system and winding hallways, the new facility, which actually is smaller than the previous space, is more efficient, Chunn said.
In 1971, CORA began serving 600 families. Under the leadership of Sister Charity Kohl, the agency operated in a renovated stable house on the Sisters of the Good Shepherd campus in Fox Chase. By 1975, the center moved to a larger building on the campus at 733 Susquehanna Road.
Today, the non-profit program serves 30,000 children and families a year throughout the city at that same building, which was constructed in 1948 as a chapel and offices for the sisters. oo
Reporter Elizabeth Stieber can be reached at 215-354-3036 or estieber@phillynews.com