About Us

The Georgia Learning Community (GLC) is deeply committed to ensuring a thriving community of quality person-centered practice in Georgia. The all-volunteer Board and founding members have shown stalwart leadership and unbridled enthusiasm for promoting quality person-centered practices.

The GLC encourages continuous learning through events that occur throughout the year. Over the years, the organization has co-sponsored events across the state that seek to bring communities together to share their experiences through storytelling and other activities. The experience of these events is shared at each Gathering and is seen as a culmination of the year’s activities that have brought communities together to share and learn from each other.

MISSION

To be an enduring presence that enhances and promotes person-centered philosophies in practice and principle.

VISION

We envision all people living the lives they choose in healthy, vibrant, and diverse communities.

VALUES

Learning

Respect

Trust

Collaboration

Partnerships

Our History

Storytelling Day

Habersham County

In 2010, GLC was officially established to recognize the rapidly growing network of providers, state personnel, families, and self-advocates whose passion and commitment has supported a movement toward quality person-centered practices in the State. The network grew out of the training and technical assistance offered to the State through the Six States “Real Choice” Grant which brought Michael Smull, Mary Lou Bourne, and Support Development Associates (SDA) to Georgia.

The Community Developers Across Georgia (CDAG), a non-profit organization, serves as an organizational base and framework for the GLC, and is the entity under which the GLC is currently “doing business”. CDAG enabled this network of volunteers to have a home base through which we could host the Georgia Gatherings, Story-telling Events, and other activities that promote person-centered thinking and quality initiatives for self- advocates and other stakeholders statewide.

Storyteller & Heartfest

Dalton, GA

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Dottie Adams

Dottie began her career in disabilities at the Ben Hill Foundation for Special Children in Fitzgerald, GA in 1976. Her big heart and ability to appreciate people for their gifts made her a natural. Dottie became an advocate and friend for many individuals and for families. Her passion resulted in people getting their own homes and futures that looked very different than the average person receiving services.

She lead the statewide effort to establish the Direct Support Professional Certificate Program in GA’s Community College System; she became a passionate advocate for supported employment and worked to have Project Search expanded in Georgia. During this time, she became an avid supporter of Person Center Organization efforts which resulted in the creation of the Georgia Learning Community and The Gathering.

During Dottie’s journey with cancer, her passion for quilting inspired her to make and give away 100 quilts. Just like the ones she created for the Learning Community (pictured above) and for the GA Alliance of Direct Support Professionals (pictured below), the quilts celebrated community, organizations and friends. She was committed to raising up the work of DSP’s . This belief in the value and the power of DSPs is why the Georgia Learning Community has named the Direct Support Professional award in her honor.

Dottie Adams Ambassador of Light for Persons Supported

The Dottie Adams Ambassador of Light Award is awarded to persons supported who use their gifts and talents to give back to their community and inspire others. This award emphasizes the essential role people with disabilities play as an integral part of Georgia’s community fabric.

Dottie Adams Direct Support/Employment Specialist Professional Award for Excellence in Person Centered Practice

The Dottie Adams Direct Support/Employment Specialist Award for Excellence in Person Centered Practice. This award is open to any direct support professional including those working in supported employment or the community.

Resources

The Learning Community for Person Centered Practices

We envision a world where all people have positive control over the lives they have chosen for themselves. Our efforts focus on people who have lost or may lose positive control because of society’s response to the presence of a disability or other conditions. This site helps us foster a global learning community that shares knowledge for that purpose. All are welcome here to share and learn.

Uniting for Change

Uniting for Change is a statewide, grassroots network of self-advocates, allies, and supporters in Georgia that was founded in 2019 through a grant from Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities. This network is committed to advocating, organizing, showing up and being heard. Uniting for Change members seek to share information, create opportunities and influence change.

Helen Sanderson Associates

Helen Sanderson Associates is an international team working with people, teams and communities to imagine ways in which everyone can thrive; and equip them with the practical knowledge, tools and skills to make it happen.

National Center on Advancing Person Centered Practices & Systems

The goal of NCAPPS is to promote systems change that makes person-centered principles not just an aspiration but a reality in the lives of people who require services and supports across the lifespan.

Let’s Connect!