The organization started in the early 1950s with a few parents sipping coffee and trying to figure out how they could help each other with their special needs children — not that the phrase even existed then.
Now, the nonprofit group of 33 employees has carved out a niche: it provides long-term help and guidance to people with disabilities and their families.
It’s an uphill battle. More than half the families include mothers who are themselves mentally challenged. And nearly all are very poor. And that means there are no quick solutions.
“You make a commitment to a family that’s a long-term commitment,” said Dave Blanchard, executive director of All About Developmental Disabilities. Some of the roughly 150 families that are clients have had help from AADD for decades.
An Augusta native and University of Georgia graduate, Blanchard served two years in the Peace Corps in New Guinea, coming back to earn a master’s degree at Auburn.
Before being named director in 2009, he had been in charge of public policy for nearly a decade. He had, he says, not managed anything large.
“I learned on the job,” he said. “I had spent 10 years learning the organization and the work that people did. And there was a lot of trust in giving me the job.”
Blanchard took over during the worst economic downturn in decades.
The organization had to make difficult cuts and refine its role, but there was no question about abandoning its mission.
“We all have a need to make a difference in the community,” he said. “You can say that in some cases people brought on their own problem, say by drinking, but this is different. It is clear that we have an obligation. It’s just the right thing to do.”
Q: Can you tell me about your budget and where you get your funding?
A: It’s about $2.5 million a year. State contracts account for 45 percent. The rest is United Way, some private foundations and we have an arrangement with the Last Chance Thrift Store.
Q: Really, a thrift store? Is that unusual?
A: It used to be pretty common. And it’s a great business and nonprofit partnership. Like Paul Newman’s business. We pick up the items; they sell them. They know the business of thrift stores, we’re a charitable organization.
To us, it’s important. There’s no one funding source that will make it for a nonprofit. We’ve always diversified our funding and our revenue from the thrift store is part of that.
Q: You became director two years ago. Was that a tough time to take over?
A: I came in at the height of the economic turmoil. We had a lot of opportunities for change. Opportunities — that’s a nice spin, isn’t it? — are never easy when they are forced on you by economic circumstances. It was difficult. It was painful.
You have to ask, how do you prioritize what we do best? How do you provide the most service to the most needy? How do you keep the staff motivated and hopeful?
The question we had to ask was, ‘what is our core business and is there anybody else doing it and doing it well?’ You look at what you offer uniquely. And we are suppliers of disability support in the community.
We used all the techniques. We eliminated programs. We froze positions. We tightened budgets and we laid some people off. Looking back, we think we made the right decisions.
Q: What is your approach to working with people?
A: We sit down with you in your house and talk. It’s very holistic. It is whatever it takes to keep the family together. It could mean finding a way for you to keep that house. It could mean helping you find a job.
It’s a unique approach. It is still very much needed for families that are very vulnerable. Because they don’t understand the systems, they need help navigating the systems.
Q: A lot of your board members are business people. I imagine they ask a lot about measuring your success — and I wonder how you do that when it’s not necessarily something that can be counted.
A: You have flashes of brilliance, moments of celebration, but the moments occur in a 24-hour day. The question is, if we weren’t in this space, what would happen?
It is hard to quantify the bottom line. How much do you invest? How much do you return? What is the metric that we talk about when we invest in human capital?
A lot of the success is what didn’t happen. Have we prevented a crisis? Have we helped make a family more stable? Are they still in their homes? Are they still together? On average, we work with a family for eight years, but sometimes it’s a lot more.
There’s a woman who had an intellectual disability who we started working with 30 years ago. She was homeless. She was an alcoholic. She used drugs. And she had a baby. Now, the baby has graduated from high school with honors and has a scholarship to the University of West Georgia.
Q: You are an executive, a manager, but it’s different than the business world, isn’t it? Is there some added insight that you can offer people in the for-profit environment?
A: We are not a huge organization. People can come into the organization and make a difference. And I think there is an intrinsic need we have to make a difference. Sometimes in the private sector world, it’s harder to feel that.
Well, I think we need to balance our lives to include helping others. Sometimes the goal of accomplishing more and more can work against itself. You find the meaning, a reason to get up and do something, day after day. You have to do that or else you need to find something else to do. Or else you will be unhappy.
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Meet Dave Blanchard
Occupation: Executive director, All About Developmental Disabilities
Age: 44
Hometown: Augusta
Lives now: Brookhaven
Family status: Divorced with two children.
Newest pastime: Competing in triathlons — three so far.
Music: Plays guitar. Favorites include Shawn Mullins and the Indigo Girls (“I love those nice chords and simple progressions”), with new interest in country (“My guilty pleasure is Justin Moore”).
Travel: “I’ve signed up for tango lessons. I’d love to go to Argentina.”
