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Foundation plans clinic for children with neurogenetic disorders

Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen

Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen

Map of Nevada State College

Nevada State College

1125 Nevada State Drive, Henderson

Beyond the Home News

A local non-profit wants to build a clinical center in Henderson that could make Southern Nevada a national hub for research and care of children with neurogenetic disorders.

The Lili Claire Foundation has been based in Las Vegas for the past eight years and operates a clinic near Twain Avenue and Paradise Road that cares for children with neurogenetic disorders, including autism, Down Syndrome, Williams Syndrome and fetal alcohol syndrome.

But that clinic was designed based on older models of care, and the foundation plans to build a state-of-the-art clinic from scratch on a five-acre parcel near Nevada State College in southeast Henderson.

Foundation officials hope the clinic will become a national center for the research and treatment of various disorders — similar to what St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., offers for pediatric cancer treatment.

“It’s very much needed. Six percent of all children are going to be born with some type of neurogenetic disorder,” Lili Claire President and co-founder Keith Resnick said. “There’s no single place in the country that’s exclusively dedicated to this type of care.”

The land for the clinic was gifted to Lili Claire by the city. Mayor Andy Hafen said the project fits in with the city’s plan to emphasize healthcare and education in future development.

“It’s a great concept,” he said. “We want there to be a whole healthcare campus there. This is the first organization to take that leap, and other dominoes will start to fall.”

The center is still in the early planning stages, as the foundation solicits designs and works on developing a capital campaign.

The building would be privately financed, although no price tag has been determined, Resnick said. If all goes according to plan, construction would start in early 2013.

The first phase of development would be the medical clinic and support facilities, which would house doctors and social workers in partnership with Lili Claire.

“What we do first and foremost is diagnose them; without a diagnosis you’re really out to sea,” Resnick said. “We also provide social services, advocacy in schools, counseling for parents, sibling workshops. We help the whole family. It’s a holistic approach.”

The foundation is also partnered with the University of Nevada School of Medicine to provide medical care.

Future phases would incorporate a complex for vocational training, which would give youths with disabilities the skills needed to enter the workforce and live self-sufficiently.

A final phase would incorporate a retail campus, which would employ the youths, provide them job training, and through partnerships with national companies, eventually allow them to move back to their hometowns to live and work.

“We’re going to be inviting national retailers to build stores that will serve the community and Nevada State College. They must make a commitment to train the kids with internships and make a commitment that they will give kids full-time jobs.”

Lili Claire was started in Southern California but moved its operations to Las Vegas as the result of relationships Resnick and his wife developed with doctors here while seeking care for their daughter, who had Williams Syndrome and died at a young age.

Resnick said the foundation searched nationally for locations to build the new clinic but found great partnerships with the city of Henderson and Nevada State College in its own back yard.

The planned clinic will partner with Nevada State College to offer students in the school’s nursing, education and business programs an opportunity for a hands-on learning experience.

“It’s exciting. These kinds of partnerships will allow students to work in a living laboratory,” Nevada State College President Lesley Di Mare said. “We’re going to be on the edge of looking at these sorts of issues.”

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