More room to live and learn

The center will include handicapped-accessible apartments and a cafe and gift shop run by people with disabilities.

CHELSEA - If you're driving by Broadway on Wednesday around 3:30 p.m., you'll see a group of people outside a renovated brick building cutting a ribbon and starting a new era on this street where immigrants have flocked for centuries.

The structure housed Bloomberg's Furniture for most of the last century. Now known as the TILL Building - named after its nonprofit owner, the Dedham-based Toward Independent Living and Learning human services agency - it will be a center for individuals with mental retardation, learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, brain injuries, and emotional problems.

Since 2006, TILL has spent $9.2 million to renovate the building, which includes 23 affordable apartments, two of which are fully handicapped accessible. While TILL has offered programs to area residents in Chelsea for 25 years, it will greatly expand its programming beginning this week at its new location.

In addition to continuing its day program that assesses individuals' medical, behavioral, and skill levels, TILL will offer its clients a chance to work on the premises. On the first floor of the building, the agency will open a storefront café and gift shop. Also, it will offer a catering service. While culinary professionals will oversee both food businesses, most of the staff will be individuals who come to TILL for different types of therapy.

"The TILL staff will train the people who have disabilities to run it themselves. They'll do the cooking, serving, and run the cash register," said Steve Lepler, TILL's director of special projects. "One of our goals is that people with disabilities should be out in the community and be valued members of the community."

Lepler said TILL already runs similar restaurants in Hyde Park and Nashua and last year served 50,000 catered meals. Its catering company has contracts with Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School and Ursuline Academy in Dedham.

For more information about TILL, visit tillinc.org. For information about the affordable housing rentals, call 617-884-1932.