Pinellas County proclaims March as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month; Park Center opens children’s services center

Pinellas County commissioners on Thursday proclaimed March 2026 as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month and recognized Park Center for Disabilities for more than seven decades of services in the St. Petersburg area. The board read the proclamation and invited Park Center representatives to accept it and speak about an immediate expansion of services.

Brian Roth, assistant vice president of government and government relations for Park Center, said the nonprofit will open a new Children’s Services Center the next day, describing it as a one-stop facility for children ages two months through five years that will consolidate therapies, early intervention and education services. "We're going to be serving children with developmental disabilities as early as two months old," Roth said, and invited commissioners and the public to the grand-opening ceremony.

A Park Center resident, Lisa Stark, gave brief testimony about the program's benefits for participants and families; commissioners presented commemorative coins and posed for a photo with the visiting residents. County officials noted that Park Center serves hundreds of local children and adults and emphasized early intervention as a driver of long-term outcomes for children with developmental disabilities.

The proclamation and the new center highlight the county's role in partnering with nonprofit service providers to expand local access to early-intervention and family-support programs. Park Center leaders said the facility will include expanded physical-therapy and therapy spaces and will centralize services to make it easier for families to obtain coordinated care.

The County did not take any new funding action tied to the proclamation during the meeting; officials said the event was intended to recognize Park Center’s milestone and to encourage community awareness of the expanded services.