About Us

Our Vision

Inclusive & Competitive Employment
Integrated Community Life and Living
Local Communities that Benefit from the Participation of all Citizens

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Our Values

Quality, Safety, Integrity, Respect, Empowerment, Choice, Inclusion, Participation, and Customer Service

Our Path to Maintain Excellence

For more than 15 Years we have received the highest achievement of Accreditation from The Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL) and it is because we have been committed to providing ‘Person Centered Supports’ that go beyond the surface of the person but instead, seek to discover and learn what is important to people and what they define as a quality of life for themselves and support that dream. With our CQL accreditation, we commit to engage in ongoing reviews throughout our accreditation period by CQL, to determine and validate that our continued quality of operations and services are maintained. We have additional external audits that are required by our funding source which offers additional assurances and a testament to our quality.

Our Story

The ARC was started in 1966 by a group of parents in Thomas County who could not find any services, including education, for their children. In 1967 they helped establish the Thomas County Training Center (now known as the Thomas Grady Service Center, Inc.), to provide services for their children and others. By 1972, the Center was receiving some state and federal funding for services and had expanded to 40 people. In 1974, Grady County services were added and the center population grew to 100.

Several years after the Association (ARC) was established, the board began saving money for a new training center. At that time the center was housed in old barracks buildings on the grounds of Southwestern State Hospital. In 1993, Thomas County applied for a grant for a new service center building. The ARC was able to provide more than $60,000 toward the project, which greatly increased work and training opportunities for people with developmental disabilities. The ARC, now known as the Arc, continues to be instrumental in supporting the people of Thomas and Grady.

In 2016 the agency gained 501c-3 status and is listed as Thomas Grady Service Center, Inc. It continues to function as a Non-Profit agency and maintains viable and stable operations with Federal and State funding, and revenue from contracts. Our major contributors are: The Arc of Thomas and Grady Counties, United Way and private donors.

Currently, the center operates under the Thomas County Board of Health. We have three facilities that are used for Day Program services located in Thomasville, Ga. and Cairo Ga. These sites are open Monday thru Friday from 7:30am to 5:00pm. The space is used to provide following supports through waiver services: Residential (24 hour home supports), Community Living Supports (assisting with basic needs to maintain independence in the home such as (cooking, grocery shopping, paying bills), Pre-vocational training (teaching skills that are transferable to work in the community and sheltered-based), Community Group and Community Individual (group and 1:1 training on accessing and using community resources and engaging in leisure activities), and Supported Employment (supporting people to obtain and maintain competitive employment). We presently serve 130 people in one or more of the services we provide.