Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, officials from Catholic Charities and others gathered Feb. 11 to dedicate and bless the new Conway Education Center that serves children and young adults with developmental differences and houses a child development center.
The Conway Education Center is located on Buchanan Street in Northeast Washington adjacent to the Kennedy School and Child Development Center. Originally named the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Institute, the Kennedy School was established in 1959 and serves children and young adults with learning differences.
With the blessing and dedication, the Kennedy School and Child Development Center now are part of the Conway Education Center.
Cardinal McElroy called the opening of the center “a day of continuity and change.”
“For all these decades, the work of God and the dreams of so many people have allowed it (the Kennedy School and Child Development Center) to flourish tremendously,” the cardinal said before offering the blessing. “The original, wonderful vision continues and is transformed in this wonderful new place.”
The new Conway Education Center is a 36,300-square-foot, two-story facility housing both the Kennedy School for students ages six to 22 years and the Child Development Center for children ages six weeks to three years with and without developmental disabilities.
Saying he was ‘filled with great joy,” to bless the facility, Cardinal McElroy said the center represents “the vision of God… to see everyone, every single person, as God sees them – imbued with human dignity and potential.”
Designed with input from faculty and staff, the building is ADA compliant and features a dining hall/multipurpose room, library, administrative offices and classrooms.
The Conway Education Center features a ramp rather than an elevator to move students and children from different floors; a U-shaped design offering a safe and shaded space outside for children to play; and an outdoor classroom with an amphitheater seating, a garden, and a dining terrace.
Cardinal McElroy called the Conway Education Center a “beautiful, beautiful place” and a “wondrous place” where students will be served “with great joy and compassion.”
The project was partially funded by a $5 million donation from the Bedford Falls Foundation established by William E. Conway Jr., a co-founder of The Carlyle Group, and his wife Joanne who died in 2024.
Funding also comes from other donors and the sale of 4.7 acres of school property.
Speaking of the services that will be offered to the students who attend there and their families, Conway said, “I used to think I was in the money business, but now it seems I am in the hope business.”
Jim Malloy, the president and CEO of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Washington, called the opening “a great occasion” and recalled that just two years ago “we started with nothing more than an artist’s rendering and a dream.”
In a prepared statement before the ceremony, Malloy said the new center is “the perfect venue for our incredibly gifted and compassionate teachers and staff to energize and enable young adults and children to reach their highest potential.’
The Conway Education Center, he said, also “demonstrates Catholic Charities D.C.’s dedication to serving those in our community who need us most – providing a welcoming place of learning, replete with the dignity they deserve.”
Mayor Bowser thanked Catholic Charities for “continuing to invest in Washingtonians – all of us,” and reminded Conway Center staff that “schools are made up of caring people … (and) education, education, education is the great equalizer.”
Matthew Putu, executive director of developmental disabilities services at Catholic Charities D.C., called the new building “a labor of love.”
“It’s been coming for a long time,” he said. “Our children will thrive in this beautiful new space.”
Adenrele Davis, a mother of a student enrolled at the center and who also works there, said “watching my son thrive here is a gift that I will always treasure.”
She also praised the new center because “it opens the door to endless possibilities to our children and young adults.”
