About Us

St. Madeleine Sophie’s Center

St. Madeleine Sophie’s Center serves individuals with developmental disabilities through nationally recognized innovative programs. We combine our culture of care and creativity within quality programs to provide liberal arts education, practical skills development, employment, and dignity for a lifetime.

In the 1970s, St. Madeleine Sophie’s Center expanded its curriculum to offer its first art classes. With these first classes, an untapped wealth of talent was revealed. The program became so popular that it outgrew the available space. In 1999, with generous community support, the art program moved to a storefront in Downtown El Cajon and was named Sophie’s Gallery and Gift Shop. In 2007, we expanded the original storefront space to 4,400 square feet that allowed us to serve more students and add more classes. All of the classes at Sophie’s Gallery are taught by professional artists – our art program was the first in our region to offer this enhanced benefit.

Our Center

In 2007, we opened a satellite gallery and gift shop, called Sophie’s Too, in our new Education Center on our main campus. And, at the end of 2009, we opened a third venue located at the NTC Promenade/Liberty Station where our students showed their work alongside artists from the general community. This third site provided an effective way to raise public awareness about our programs and engaged the support and interest of artists from the general community. As of January 2014, Sophie’s Gallery NTC/Liberty Station has closed its doors and moved to Kensington to establish Sophie’s Kensington Gallery & Gift Shop.
Our Sophie’s Gallery location in Downtown El Cajon has an annual exhibition season that is launched with opening night receptions that often draw 200+ people. At the Sophie’s Gallery location in Kensington, we also hold monthly exhibition openings for local artists who show their work alongside our students’ work.
For more information on St. Madeleine Sophie’s Center, please visit our website at

Give Them A Voice

Many students who had not been able to express themselves through traditional means are able to share their once hidden feelings through vibrant, original works of art on canvas, wood, glass, and other media.