Community Partner: Empower Cherokee Empower Cherokee provides support to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Cherokee County and the surrounding areas. The organization is dedicated to empowering individuals to live life as they define it through employment, social connections, and the resources necessary for each person to achieve his/her hopes and dreams. Empower Cherokee accomplishes its mission through a person-centered approach to service planning. Throughout the year, the staff works directly with the people it supports (along with their circle of support) to help create and implement an individualized plan for accomplishing the goals that each person wants to achieve. Plans are modified, as the desires of the supported person change or as he/she accomplishes his/her hopes and dreams. When looking at the programs concretely, Empower Cherokee currently offers three services from which supported individuals can choose, in combination or individually: Supported Employment, Community Access Group, and Community Access Individual, along with Specialized Medical Supplies if the person also receives other services from the organization. Empower Cherokee provides services through the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities’ New Options Waiver (NOW) Program and Comprehensive Supports Waiver Program (COMP), as well as through Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency’s Supported Employment and Customized Employment programs. Like other businesses and nonprofits, Empower Cherokee experienced some hardships due to the pandemic and had to adapt to the changing landscape of its industry. To continue to provide the highest quality services, the organization is instituting important changes this year. The staff plans to move all in-house services back to the main campus, which will enable the organization to grow in a new direction. Other plans are to add Community Living Support Services, increase services for supported employment, and add after-hours care. Empower Cherokee anticipates that 2021 will be an exciting year of growth and change. As always, the organization invites the community to get involved by donating to its programs, volunteering, and/or employing people it supports in local businesses. Together, we can “empower people to live life as they define it.” To learn more, please call or visit the website.133 Univeter Road, Canton, GA 30114 770-345-5821EmpowerCherokee.org
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