The John James Foundation has announced its plans to re-open the former AEIOU early-intervention autism centre in Garran.
The foundation's chief executive officer Joe Roff said it was going to embark initially on a pilot program at the centre to ensure the facility was financially secure for the long term.
The centre will be operated by Communities at Work in partnership with Capital Region Community Services.
It will be known as the Garran Early Learning and Intervention Centre, and its director will be Liz Borger.
Communities at Work chief executive officer Lesley Jordan said the centre would open in September with five children with autism two days a week,
The hope was to have it eventually operating full-time at capacity with 40 children aged from zero to eight with autism spectrum disorder or global developmental delay.
"Every child deserves the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive close to home and this partnership is about restoring access to specialist early learning and intervention support for Canberra families who need it most," Ms Jordan said.
The $5 million early-intervention autism centre was funded by the John James Foundation, Canberra's biggest health charity, on land gifted by the ACT government.
It opened in August 2022, under the operation of the Queensland-based AEIOU Foundation.
Less than four years later, the AEIOU Foundation went into liquidation in March this year and all its centres were closed immediately.
At the time, the directors of AEIOU said the step was taken "following a sustained period of financial pressure across the disability services sector".
The three Canberra organisations have worked to reopen the centre, following an approach by the ACT Education Directorate.
The John James Foundation retains ownership of the building and is committed to ensuring the autism centre remains open for the long-term.
Mr Roff said the foundation would not be charging Communities at Work rent and would be providing iinitial funding to help the centre re-open.
He said the building had been constructed as a "bespoke" facility for autism early intervention and had been mothballed since March when AEIOU pulled out as the operator, putting a strain on families.
Ms Jordan said when the AEIOU Foundation went into liquidation in March, there were 21 families using the centre in Garran.
"There are four particular families who have not been able to find alternatives and are quite keen for us to open," she said.
"So even before we have advertised, we have four families waiting to get in."
The Garran centre received the green light from the ACT government and secured Commonwealth Child Care Subsidy approval to operate as an early childhood and education care centre.
The John James Foundation, Communities at Work and Capital Region Community Services have worked together to develop an operating model aligned with the ACT Disability Strategy and Thriving Kids.
Thriving Kids, which starts in October, is a $4 billion initiative for children aged eight and under with developmental delay and or autism with low to moderate support needs. It provides assistance without requiring a formal diagnosis. Thriving Kids is funded by the Commonwealth and the state and territory governments.
"At the moment, you can only access NDIS or any funding under that if you've got a diagnosis so this is around ensuring children can get ahead of the curve and get assessed as early as possible so they can get that early intervention which helps them to live their best life," Ms Jordan said.
The three organisations reopening the Garran centre are also seeking ACT government funding under Thriving Kids to ensure its long-term viability. That was due to current national and territory funding arrangements for an early childhood education and care centre not being enough "to cover the operating and workforce costs required to support high-needs children".
In the meantime, the John James Foundation was funding the pilot program, which could be a nation-leading case study for the rollout of Thriving Kids.
"The foundation is happy to fund this almost proof-of-concept with a smaller group so we know we can grow it sustainably and help more and more families," Mr Roff said.
