Region 11:

Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brantley, Brooks, Charlton, Clinch, Coffee, Cook, Echols, Irwin, Lanier, Lowndes, Pierce, Tift, Turner, Ware

Cathy Burks is an adoptive mother to two sons. Her family began the adoption process in Tennessee and completed with the Lowndes County DFCS in 1996.

Cathy is the founder (1997) and current President of a very active adoptive/foster parent support group in Lowndes County. Cathy also attended Leadership school provided by the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) in 2002 where she received training on developing and working with support groups for parents. She developed a Toolkit for organizing Support groups in 2003 that all Resource Advisors now utilize with families interested in starting their own support group. She is a training coordinator and certified trainer for IMPACT in the Lowndes county area. She has served as an adoption facilitator for video teleconference sessions, a Program Coordinator for the One Church One Child Program, and is a Partner's in Policymaking graduate, where she received training on how to be an advocate for her son with special needs and others like him. She has also served with The Governor's Council on Disabilities for many years.

After many years of parenting a child with severe behaviors, Cathy and co worker (Kim Wynn, Region 10 Advisor) decided to develop and present a workshop on how to deal with these behaviors. It is titled "Learning to Laugh Your Way Through Difficult Behaviors". Cathy and Kim have presented this workshop at NACAC, The Ties That Bind Training, and other local venues for parents and/or professionals sharing the techniques they have learned that work.

Cathy's greatest strength is her ability to assist families parenting children with special needs and providing resources for any family in need. She is passionate about the work she does for the Georgia Center. Cathy has been with the Center since its beginning. She came onboard with the Center February 15, 2002.