The late Bobby Dodd had two strong passions: to coach and inspire successful football teams at Georgia Tech, and to ensure that people with disabilities had the opportunity to reach their full potential. In both cases, he was a winner.
Dodd's football fame is legendary and his advocacy lives on in the Bobby Dodd Institute, a nonprofit vocational training and employment facility, with programs that serve about 700 developmentally, physically and economically-challenged clients a year in metro Atlanta.
In 1965, he partnered with the Atlanta Alliance for Developmental Disabilities, which founded the Bobby Dodd Center to help adults with disabilities achieve economic self sufficiency through employment.
Through the years, that center expanded its services and diversified its business operations to become an independent, multifaceted organization.
In contrast to grant-driven nonprofits, about 93 percent of BDI's funding comes through earned income. President Wayne McMillan is proud of that record and the organization's proactive approach to creating jobs and opportunities.
Of the 54 million Americans with disabilities, 70 percent are unemployed. Most of the clients referred to BDI by the Georgia Department of Human Resources, the Department of Veterans Affairs and private sources have never held a job.
"Our mission is to empower people and change lives," McMillan said. "We do that by focusing on a person's ability, not his disabilities.
"Realistically, people empower themselves by believing in themselves and seeing a future. We help them create the dream, then give them the tools to realize it."
Seeing that the economy was not producing the kinds of jobs in which his clients could excel, McMillan and the BDI staff began operating a training center and small businesses. One is a contract to handle data entry for the Georgia Bureau of Investigations. Clients process 30,000 criminal arrest records a month.
"This is a true contract, not a grant," McMillan said. "Our people have to perform at a less than 2 percent error rate and meet deadlines."
A BDI-operated café in an engineering firm trains people to work in food service. The institute provides janitorial services to many businesses, schools and organizations. BDI-trained employees run the mail room at Georgia State University, the switchboards at VA hospitals in Atlanta and Nashville, handle package assembly and warehouse storage operations.
In the tech shop, people learn to take apart and assemble computers while working on their A++ certification. When an orthopedic problem kept Angela Davis from doing her job as a line server, BDI trained her to work in its fulfillment operation for the Georgia Department of Trade and Tourism. From the BDI training center in Atlanta, she and her co-workers assembled, packaged and mailed out 68,000 packets to Georgia tourists and visitor centers last year.
"I had never worked a computer before or taken inventory and now I'm the lead person in tourism," said Davis, a mother of four. "Working here has made a big difference in my life."
Cynthia Kuykendall lost her customer service job due to kidney disease and the time needed for her dialysis. At BDI, she went through the office essentials program and is now the executive secretary for BDI's Document Management Solutions business, which provides printer cartridges and service to companies.
"It feels great to be working again," Kuykendall said.
"I was so blessed that they let me work around my threehour dialysis schedule and saw me through a kidney and pancreas transplant. I've got a second chance at life now." BDI has doubled the size of its operations in the last five years, and grown the number of people served by 400 percent.
"The more money we make, the more mission we're able to provide," McMillan said.
Thanks to the innovative Explorers Program, Dalton King, a 19-year-old with developmental disabilities, has his first job at a grocery store, where he restocks shelves, collects carts and does light cleaning. In partnership with Atlanta Public Schools and the Georgia Department of Rehabilitation Services, BDI brings high school-aged special education students to a multi-media classroom at its training facility.
"For half the day, our teachers provide intensive academic stimulation," said Sheila Zipf, BDI vice president of vocational services. "On computers, the students work on their reading, writing and math skills and learn about jobs that interest them. They write résumés.
"In the afternoon, they work in the training center to learn job ethics and skills." "My teachers, Ms. Merkerson and Ms. Robinson, are terrific," King said. ?They taught me how to count money and keep a budget. I learned working skills.
"I wanted to try working in a grocery store to see if I liked it and I do," he added. "The best part about working is I get paid. Sometimes I buy clothes with my money. It feels good to work."
Of the 185,000 Georgia children in special education programs, the vast majority stay in the system until they are 22 and leave without any job training.
At 19, King is participating in the economy and taking pride in his job. Other Explorers Program graduates are working at Red Lobster, Jiffy Lube, the Atlanta Food Bank and Kroger.
"The real power of this program is that you take people who were told they can't do anything, and show them that they can," Zipf said.