clarkstoncommunitycenter.org

Growing in years can present the elderly and their caregivers with a bewildering set of challenges. Anyone caring for an elderly person will likely have questions about services available in the area for seniors. The Clarkston Community Center can help!

The Information & Referral program is provided at no charge both to older adults and to their caregivers. A professional counselor will assess the needs of the older adult and explain how they might qualify for various services offered.

• We offer wide-ranging help to find resources such as:

• Providing transportation to the doctor.

• Enrolling in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to assist low income households, particularly those that pay a high proportion of household income for home energy, primarily in meeting immediate home energy needs. Answering questions on Medicaid.

• Helping you with meals and housekeeping if you are unable to do so yourself.

• Identifying recreation and leisure opportunities and enrichment classes.

• Finding adult day care programs in the area.

• Screening for public benefit programs.

Contact Almaz Akalewold at 404-297-5653 for more information.

Youth, coaches, parents gather during Jan. 19 annual soccer tourney at Clarkston Community Center

More than 80 neighborhood children and teenagers from dozens of countries met on the soccer field at the Clarkston Community Center (CCC) Jan. 19, on a holiday that honors the United States' greatest civil rights campaigner, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The 5-a-side tournament, the fourth annual event, was open to boys and girls ages 6 and up, and was the first event on the field since it was resodded by some 150 volunteers brought together by KaBOOM, a nonprofit that creates safe places to play.

The tournament came the day before the inauguration of President Barack Obama, who, as an African-American, could not have been elected to the most powerful office in the world just forty years ago in Dr. King's time.

"Here we are in the middle of a multicultural neighborhood, on the King Day holiday, one day ahead of the inauguration of the first African-American president. We want to celebrate with something for the kids to do," said John O'Kelley, Executive Director of the Clarkston Community Center.

Much of Clarkston's international population arrived as refugees from other countries, survivors of the kind of violence that Dr. King condemned throughout his career. As part of the event, the CCC installed artwork on the soccer field fence showing the flags of the 30+ nationalities living in the area, including Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Burma and Somalia as well as the United States.  

The CCC's partners in the tournament included Soccer in the Streets, the International Community School (ICS) in Decatur and the Decatur-DeKalb YMCA.  Soccer in the Streets is an Atlanta-based nonprofit that uses soccer to teach life skills to "at-risk" kids in urban communities. ICS is a charter school, founded on a vision of the "Beloved Community" in which all people share in the wealth of the world, a vision popularized by Dr. King. The school is the setting of a yearlong profile of a refugee student by the Christian Science Monitor, at www.csmonitor.com/littlebillclinton. To see video of the day, click here -----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN0uEDCEFhM

Bank of America Georgia President Milton H. Jones, Jr (left) and Shirley Mitchell, Market Development Manager, present CCC's John O'Kelley a welcome check.

The Clarkston Community Center was selected by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Inc. as a 2008 Neighborhood Builder award recipient under its Neighborhood of Excellence Initiative. The CCC was one of two winners selected from over 80 Atlanta non-profit competitors for this prize.  In connection with this initiative, the CCC will receive $200,000 in core operating support ($100,000 annually for two years).