By Mark Woolsey

Long-time Cobb County non-profit the Tommy Nobis Center has moved
south-to a renovated building near Truist Park and the I-75/I-285
interchange.

The nonprofit-which has provided education, training and employment
opportunities to the disabled for nearly 50 years- traded a
60-thousand-square-foot building on Bells Ferry Road in Marietta for
the 25-thousand-square-foot former Cobb Chamber of Commerce building
on Interstate North Parkway.

President and CEO Dave Ward says the downsizing was by design.

“The old building had a 40 thousand-square-foot warehouse and we got
out of the packaging and labeling business a handful of years ago and
we really didn’t need that space,” says Ward.

He says with an intensified focus on educating and training the
disabled for employment, the nonprofit has expanded from one
classroom in the old building to four in the new location and the
capability for a fifth. They’ll provide ample space for such programs
as The Academy, an accelerated vocational and life skills training
program for young adults with disabilities.

“We’ll be able to double our impact in less than half the space,”
 says Ward.

Each of the bright, spacious classrooms contains cutting-edge TV,
video and computer capability, including a mobile IT cart.

He says the new location will give better access to the center’s
programs for disabled participants coming from throughout metro
Atlanta. And it will enable staffers to more easily disperse to more
than 50 schools in the metro area where the center’s Early Youth
Employment Services (EYES) curriculum is taught.

The center will host an open house Nov. 13 and 14 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.