Partnership Exposes Special Needs Adults To Wonders Of Nature

ROSWELL, GA — The Fulton County Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities and the Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell want to introduce adults with developmental disabilities to the wonders of nature and the programs offered by the nature and wildlife center.

Clients and staff from all three training centers will travel to the Nature Center to enjoy personal contact with plants, animals and the Roswell facility. LaTrina Foster, director of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, emphasized the value of the new partnership.

“Each month, our individuals will have a different experience with the nature center and enjoy the wonderful programming that they offer," Foster said. "Our partnership with the Chattahoochee Nature Center continues our focus on building the social, emotional, physical and intellectual skills of individuals we serve through exposure to normal activities that all people can experience."

The partnership will also include regular visits by representatives from the Chattahoochee Nature Center to the three Training Centers. Kim Hakimian, outreach and partnership coordinator for Chattahoochee Nature Center, described the animals that they will bring to the centers.

“Because we are a rehabilitation center that means that we have non-releasable wildlife," she said. "Something happened to them, they have been injured, or they are used to being around people too much, and so we have specimens from turtles to snakes to possums to a variety of raptors that we bring to centers so people get a close-up experience with those animals."

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Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities will use vans to transport center participants to the Chattahoochee Nature Center from the three centers:

North Training Center
5025 Roswell Road NE, Sandy Springs
(404) 303-6166

Central Training Center
425 Langhorn Street SW, Atlanta
(404) 752-8766

South Training Center
2605 Fairburn Road SW, Atlanta
(404) 346-8365

For more information about the agency, visit Fulton County Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities website.

Image via Bea Karnes/Patch