Tucked away on a 39-acre old-growth forest in Atlanta lies a small oasis of inclusion, care and respect that is having a very large impact on Atlanta communities. Inspired by the needs of one child 75 years ago, it now touches the lives of children, adults, families, neighborhoods and local businesses in an expanding circle of influence.

“Well—he just told that to the wrong two women!” 

It was 1948, and Ann Lane had just told her friend Rebecca Frazer that her pediatrician told her she needed to institutionalize her daughter, who had recently been diagnosed with cerebral palsy. But the two women wanted more for little Anita. Instead, they joined forces to launch the Cerebral Palsy Center—now named the Frazer Center—in Atlanta. The Center is now in its 75th year of public service.

With just seven students to start, the women opened the doors of the facility for the first time in 1949. Three years later, they purchased the expansive Cator Woodford estate in the heart of historic Druid Hills, believing it would make a wonderful place for a campus.

Frazer Center has gone through many growth spurts since its inception. Initially, the organization only served children with cerebral palsy, aiming to give them the education they needed and offering them a way to avoid institutionalization. They could stay home with their families, go to their places of worship on Sundays, and so forth. 

But a few years later, organizers realized that when those children turn into adults, they still need support and guidance—of a different sort. To that end, they launched the Adult Program to help adults with disabilities become active decision-makers, receive classes and training, and find and keep jobs in the community. To date, they’ve helped match numerous adults with disabilities with jobs at Home Depot, Salesforce, Kroger, Publix and other businesses in town.

Fast forward a few more years and Frazer broadened its reach further by opening its doors to people with any kind of intellectual disability or developmental delay, not just cerebral palsy.

In 1975, the organization’s role changed once again when the newly signed Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) mandated that public schools must provide free public education to all children with disabilities. Frazer Center pivoted slightly, deciding to “bookend the public school system,” as CEO Paige McKay Kubik describes it. The Center would focus on preparing the young children for kindergarten and then be there for them once they graduated to support them as adults.

Today, Frazer Center’s Child Development Program serves children six weeks to five years old. Priority is given to those with special needs—physical, cognitive and/or medical—but fully 80 percent are “typically developing” kids who get to participate in Frazer’s learn-through-play, nature-forward, inclusive curriculum. Frazer has served 200 children and nearly 70 adults over the last year.

“[Frazer Center] helped me grow and understand different things in life and what I want in my life,” says Alicia Day, who had shown signs of developmental delays as an infant and was soon diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Day attended Frazer as a child and then returned to Frazer after she graduated from high school in 2010, entering the Adult Program. 

“When I first came here [as a child], everyone made me feel like family,” affirms Day. When she returned as an adult, The Adult Program staff helped set her up as a volunteer at neighborhood businesses, “getting me ready for the real world,” she says. She landed a job at Home Depot in 2012 and still works there today. “I love Home Depot!” she says. 

Day is also an ex-officio member of the Frazer board of directors. “I’m there to advocate for some of the clients who can’t talk like me. I like to be a voice for people who can’t speak up for themselves.”

“Our end goal,” says Kubik, “is that everybody in the community is making sure people with disabilities are included in their work and their leisure.” Kubik's career has predominantly been with early education nonprofits, many with inclusion as a focus, and she has been a guiding force at Frazer Center for ten years. While Frazer’s chief aim is to help people with disabilities, equally important is its mission to encourage inclusiveness to take root in the greater community. “We want to help the community at large be welcoming and open and understand what an asset it is to have people with disabilities in their communities, engaging with them side-by-side,” explains Kubik. That way, the difference they make expands exponentially.

To accomplish this, Frazer staff engages everyone who walks through their doors. “People come to enjoy the beautiful property or to book [weddings or events], but when they’re here, they learn about the work that we do. We help raise their awareness about the roles people with disabilities can play in the community,” says Kubik. The hope is that newcomers ultimately become virtual ambassadors themselves, encouraging inclusion in their community’s businesses and places of employment.

Inclusion Program Coordinator and Admissions Coordinator Denise Amos is one of two inclusion coaches in Frazer’s Child Development Program. Kubik calls these coaches “the hub in the wheel” for the way they facilitate collaboration between parents, therapists and teachers when parents would otherwise have to manage a distressing and disjointed set of tasks on their own. Part scheduling facilitator, part communication and training coordinator, most of their work involves serving children with identified needs or delays.

“Inclusion is about belonging to a community, a group of friends, a school or a neighborhood,” says Amos. “All children need care, education and nurturing, and it’s pretty tough for families with children with disabilities to find places to go—especially in Georgia. And, of course, we want the kids to have that foundation of tolerance and acceptance from when they’re little.” 

Her compassion is palpable. One five-year-old girl Amos works with in pre-K classes has a genetic disorder and is mostly nonverbal. And Amos is smitten. “Just the way that you can connect with a child that’s not talking is incredible. Everyone around her is talking and she’s full-on having relationships and communicating and building connections,” she says. “It’s just beautiful.”

Frazer Center uses The Creative Curriculum—a state-approved, evidence-based teaching framework that emphasizes play-based learning. The approach is based on the premise that children learn better through interactions with their social and physical environment. Teachers can also customize activities according to a child’s abilities and interests.

The Center also makes the most of its lush outdoor setting with “outdoor classrooms,” which include shade-covered playgrounds, a large courtyard with plants, vegetables and herbs, and teacher-led access to forest trails. “These are great for all the things little children are learning—teamwork and social/emotional skills, for exploring and creativity and asking questions. And, of course, just the physical benefits of getting outside and exercising,” says Kubik. Frazer Center uses a nature-based curriculum geared toward young children that it developed with faculty at Georgia State University.

Partnering with other Atlanta organizations and sharing Frazer Center’s curriculum with other programs in Atlanta is another way the organization touches many more people than those who participate in its programs. For example, many of Atlanta’s kids “don’t have access to nature-based programs like summer camps and other [outdoor] learning,” says Kubik. So Frazer Center shares its curriculum, provides teacher training and helps kids receive outdoor learning with other Atlanta programs, such as Our House in Decatur, a homeless shelter and service hub serving children who are facing homelessness. 

Frazer Center will celebrate 75 years of service at its Gather in the Gardens gala on April 20. In the meantime, its growth trajectory continues well into the future, as it is always on the lookout for new ways to serve, partner and share its vision with the community. ❧