Dr. Gene Caldwell and Dottie Thompson honored at Luncheon at TN Governor’s Residence

The Future Home of Emory Valley Center ARC Grant of $500,000 toward New Facility There is an urgent need to replace the current Emory Valley Center space now provided in a facility that will soon be demolished. A new facility is planned and designed and a capital fund campaign is underway. Click to learn more and to donate.

View a You Tube video of an interview with Dottie Thompson by Channel 10

In 1955 a group of Oak Ridge and Clinton parents, wanting a better world for their handicapped children, chartered the Oak Ridge Council for Retarded Children (ORCRC) and started a school for intellectually disabled children in a metal barracks building donated by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). ORCRC raised money for a new building and the AEC gave them 3 acres of land in 1958 for a school that was completed in 1959. In 1961 the AEC donated seven more acres and the Daniel Arthur Rehabilitation Center (DARC) was started. This building was adjacent to the original Emory Valley School for Retarded Children and some of their functions were merged.

In 1966, as many of the students at DARC and the Emory Valley School became adults, additional services were added to emphasize vocational training. In 1971 a new sheltered workshop was built on land donated by the City of Oak Ridge across the street from DARC. The center for adults was known as the Community Services for Exceptional Citizens (CSEC).

In 1973 the center began providing Residential Services and in 1991 the center began providing Early Intervention Services. In January of 1991 the name of the agency changed from CSEC to Emory Valley Center (EVC) and in 1995, EVC opened a satellite Day Program in Morgan County called the Advantage Center.

Emory Valley Center is funded through the Tennessee Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, the U.S. Department of Human Service's Division of Rehabilitative Services, the U.S. Department of Housing and Human Development, the Tennessee Department of Education, and the United Way.

Emory Valley Center is licensed by the Tennessee Department of Education, the Tennessee Department on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, and the Department of Health.

Job Opportunities at EVC

Emory Valley Center Values:

• Honesty - Emory Valley Center will conduct business in an honest, straightforward, respectful and fair manner in all instances.

• Commitment - Emory Valley Center is committed to providing the best services possible to fulfill the agency’s mission.

• Pride/Ownership - Staff will celebrate and be proud of the accomplishments of those we support and of their own contributions to the team.

• Excellence - Emory Valley Center is committed to continuous improvement of services with ongoing goals maintaining the highest level of excellence in all that we do.

• Respect - Emory Valley Center will conduct all operations in a culture of mutual respect.