Meet Paige McKay Kubik: CEO, Frazer Center

We had the good fortune of connecting with Paige McKay Kubik and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Paige, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
Frazer Center was started back in 1949 by some visionary Atlanta women. They rejected the prevailing wisdom of the day, insisting that the best place for a child with a disability was not an institution, but at home with their family and their community. That vision of inclusion has been at the center of our work ever since. Today, Frazer Center’s mission is “to foster inclusive communities where children and adults, with and without disabilities, gather, learn, and flourish.” In our NAEYC-accredited, Quality Rated inclusive early education center, children with disabilities receive the therapeutic supports they need to participate fully in a school readiness program alongside their typically developing peers. Growing up in an inclusive environment, Frazer Center children value differences, seek common ground, and learn how to be helpful and creative to make sure everyone is engaged. Frazer Center also provides services to support adults with intellectual disabilities so that they can share their unique gifts with the world. Whether it is through employment, volunteer work, civic engagement, adult learning, or pursuing hobbies, the supports provided by Frazer Center make it possible for individuals with disabilities to live their purpose and to give back to their community. We open our beautiful campus to neighbors, inviting them to become part of our vision of a more inclusive world where every person is valued and respected.

What should our readers know about your business?
Frazer Center is blessed with a beautiful campus, housed on the historic Cator Woolford estate in the Druid Hills and Lake Claire neighborhoods. It’s a resource that plays an important role in fulfilling our mission to create inclusive communities where people, with and without disabilities, gather, learn, and flourish. It also provides us with some unique opportunities. Through the Cator Woolford Garden social enterprise, we rent the garden and our lovely atrium for weddings, special events, and film and photo shoots. The proceeds provide vital support to our programs. The campus also includes a 39-acre old growth forest. For several years, we’ve been working with Trees Atlanta, EcoAddendum, and volunteers to protect the forest. It provides greenspace and recreation for our neighbors, an inclusive forest classroom for our children, and a place of restoration and serenity for those who need that sensory release. These resources–the Cator Woolford Garden and the Frazer Forest–give Frazer Center a unique way to connect people in the community to the people we serve and our mission of inclusion.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
In late February 2020, my last hurrah before COVID sent us all into lockdown was hosting my friend Hiram, who traveled from Puerto Rico for his first visit to Atlanta. After picking him up at the airport, we headed to the Sun Dial restaurant for drinks and a 365 degree view of the city from the top of the Westin Peachtree, and then walked Centennial Park checking out the city lights and Olympic landmarks. Over the next few days we went to a fundraising gala for Olmsted Linear Park Alliance hosted among the dinosaurs at Fernbank Museum of Natural History, toured Atlanta Botanical Garden, the CNN Studios, and the Georgia Aquarium, drank Beverly and met the polar bear at the World of Coca-Cola, walked through Piedmont Park, and hiked at Amicalola Falls. From Ponce, we walked the Beltline, ate hot Krispy Kremes, had sweet tea at Mary Mac’s Tea Room, and toasted the Atlanta skyline from the roof of the Claremont Hotel & Lounge. And in Tucker, where I live, we went to trivia night with friends at the Local 7 on Main Street. Of course, as CEO of Frazer Center, I had to make sure he received a personal tour of the historic Cator Woolford Garden and Frazer Forest on our campus. And as the current Semi-Conductor (musical director) of the Seed & Feed Marching Abominable band, I dressed him in feathers, sequins, and tie-dye and brought him along as a dancer at our gigs, performing for a Mardi Gras pub crawl in Little Five Points and several charitable performances around the city. Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I grew up in a big, noisy, unconditionally loving extended Southern family. Our lives crisscrossed daily at family gatherings, school, church, work, and of course, the football field. My cousin Randy Boone was part of it all, the “color commentator” whose quips and catch phrases we all still quote. Randy’s intellectual disability was just one in a mixed bag of family character traits that made life interesting. When the cousins were young, Randy was included in everything. But as we grew up and left for college and started careers and families, the options available to Randy were few. His frustration and sadness were clear, facing a lack of agency to make choices about his relationships, how he spent his days, or where he lived. When Randy passed away in his mid-40s, his memorial service was the most touching I’ve ever attended, as story after story was shared by people who loved him and valued his friendship. I think of Randy every day at Frazer Center. I hope our work supports people with disabilities to take the lead in decisions about their lives, and to be fully included and valued in our communities throughout their lifetimes.

Website: https://www.frazercenter.org/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frazercenter/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/1070508/admin/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/frazercenter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frazercenter

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9FSUE6FP9_rwOLnRGMnSlA

Other: https://www.catorwoolfordgardens.org/ This is the website for Cator Woolford Garden, Frazer Center’s social enterprise. Proceeds from event rentals and photo shoots on our historic campus support our work with children and adults with disabilities.

Image Credits
Dina Shadwell