From a small, quiet office to the middle of the big city, Towson’s Center for Adults with Autism has found a new home. The second floor of the Towson City Center, which opened up this fall, features a classroom and a fully functioning apartment as part of the CAA section of the Towson’s Institute of Well Being.

The center has developed and expanded its ties with the University in several departments, Ray Stinar, administrative director of the center said.

Particularly, the center has focused on strengthening connections with athletics.

Last year was the first Tiger Fun Run, the first of many, Director of Basketball Operations Michael Swets said. The run, which the basketball team competed in, was a 2.5 mile run across campus to raise funds and awareness for the Kennedy Krieger Institute for Autism Research and the Towson’s Center for Adults with Autism.

Rhonda Greenhaw, the director of the center for adults with autism, said that Towson students who are on the autism spectrum are hoping to collaborate in the future with other University sports teams like gymnastics, swimming and diving and golf.

“To create these opportunities is very exciting,” Greenhaw said.

Greenhaw said that students can’t understand what it’s like to be on the autism spectrum, but having collaborations with the athletics and other student groups and the members of the Center is considered mutually beneficial.

“We’re so grateful for the basketball team for reaching out and supporting us,” Greenhaw said.

The Fun Run will also occur this year in October. The Towson Tigers raised $500 and had approximately 50 participants last year, Swets said.

“We’d love to double those numbers [this year] if we can,” Swets said.