“Frazer Center means the world to me.”
Alicia Day has been closely tied to the Frazer Center for 34 years. But she doesn’t have any memories of her first visit here. She was only about one year old at the time. Her mother, Hannelore Day, brought her to Frazer after touring some other centers for Alicia.
“I remember driving up the hill thinking, Where are we going here? Am I coming to Hansel and Gretel?? What is this place?” Hannelore, or Hanne, laughs about it now. But at the time, she was a mother on a mission.
Alicia was born prematurely at 26 weeks. It wasn’t long before Hanne recognized that Alicia was not developing at the same rate other children her age were. Alicia was making no sounds, just looking around. Their pediatrician blamed it on her being a premie. Hanne took Alicia to Scottish Rite (now Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta) where a therapist diagnosed Alicia with cerebral palsy.
Hanne began taking Alicia twice a week to a therapy program through Dekalb County at Glen Haven Elementary School. While there, someone asked Hanne if she knew of a place called REACH (Rehabilitation and Education for Adults and Children, Inc.)—now the Frazer Center. The World Wide Web was not even available to the broader public at that time, so Hanne relied heavily on word of mouth to find resources for Alicia. So she followed that lead to REACH.
During their first visit, Hanne and Alicia were welcomed by a social worker on staff, Patty Weaver. “I thought it would be costly, and we were paying out of pocket,” says Hanne. But Patty helped Hanne apply for the Katie Beckett waiver which allows for children with disabilities to receive Medicaid assistance. Alicia was approved, and she was set up with an ISP, or Individual Support Plan which allows for everyone involved in supporting Alicia to focus on the details that were important to her and her development.
Alicia started attending Frazer where she received physical, occupational, and speech therapies. Hanne was not working at the time so she could drive Alicia from appointment to appointment. And then there was Alicia’s sister Cecilia, who was nine years older and had to be driven to school and other commitments.
Alicia’s father was working for the U.S. Postal Service, and by the time Alicia was about 2 years old, Hanne also started working with the USPS. Hanne worked the night shift, leaving the house at 6:00 p.m. while her husband worked the day shift, leaving the house at 5:00 a.m. They didn’t see each other much, but it helped them manage the family schedule.
Cecilia was “crazy about Alicia,” says Hanne. She played with Alicia and always wanted Hanne to bring her along so Cecilia’s friends could be with her too. “Alicia was always involved. She grew up with those friends. They looked out for her, and they still do.”
When Alicia was about three years old, she entered the DeKalb County School system, starting with Coralwood, “the only public school in DeKalb County dedicated to serving children with and without special needs between three and six years of age.”
As she progressed through elementary and middle school, she became involved with a cheerleading program at DeKalb Parks and Recreation for people using wheelchairs. “It was very fun,” Alicia says. “We traveled a lot and went to competitions in Macon. We had banquets at Mason Mill Park.”
Alicia went to Avondale High School where, she says, “I had a lot of friends who were just like me. I really liked high school.” While there, she entered a vocational training program that allowed her to volunteer for about two months at a time at businesses such as LA Fitness, Walmart, Big Lots, and DeKalb Medical Center. She was able to try on different jobs to see if she might one day want to work in such a position.
When a student with a disability has an IEP, or Individualized Education Program, the last day of high school is often the day before that student turns 22 years old. Alicia left Avondale High School in March of 2010, then walked with her classmates for graduation that summer.
But before either of those events, Hanne had been working diligently to find opportunities for her daughter. She had put Alicia on the Medicaid waiver waiting list years prior, so by the time Alicia graduated, she was covered. Someone from DeKalb County had given Hanne a list of centers that might be right for Alicia. Hanne visited several but didn’t get a good feeling about any of them. Then she placed a phone call: “Hello, My name is Mrs. Day. My daughter Alicia is graduating…”
The voice on the other end cut her off—“THE Mrs. Day??” It was Patty Weaver who remembered the Days from years earlier when they enrolled at REACH—now Frazer Center. “You bring Alicia here. She’ll always have a place here.”
And so Hanne did. And so Alicia does.
Alicia has been back at Frazer since April of 2010, and she became the first adult participant in Frazer’s Supported Employment program when she began working at Home Depot in 2012. She’s been an employee there ever since and recently celebrated her eleventh anniversary.
Alicia’s connection to Frazer doesn’t end there. She is also a Frazer Center ex-officio board member. “Having Alicia on board gives our other board members a personal connection to the people we serve and our mission, and direct insight into what our self-advocates find important, without being passed through the filter of staff,” says Paige McKay Kubik, Frazer CEO. Early on in Paige’s tenure, she made sure that several of our self-advocates “participated in a program at Georgia State's Center for Leadership in Disability aimed at preparing them to represent themselves on advisory boards and boards of directors.” Alicia was one of them.
“Alicia is that perfect mix in a board member,” continues Paige, “asking hard questions and holding us accountable, while at the same being an enthusiastic cheerleader and a passionate ambassador.”
“Frazer Center is the best thing that happened to us,” says Hanne. “It’s a pleasure to go there.”
Alicia adds, “Frazer Center means the world to me. I think Frazer is my second home.”
To request more information about Frazer's Supported Employment services, fill out this form.