Young MSW Alums Quickly Impacting Community

Meet Lauren Ricciardelli and Steven McGarity. They are MSW graduates of the Class of 2011 and they have wasted no time in using their UGA Social Work training to impact their community. Lauren and Stephen are co-founders and co-directors of Georgia C.L.A.Y., which stands for Community Based Learning for At-Risk Youth.

Georgia Clay specializes in finding alternative paths for youths in the Northeast Georgia area who are in the juvenile justice system. Lauren and Stephen founded this agency as a result of the need for better options for youth with emotional and/or behavioral issues.

Lauren and Stephen's journey has been a remarkable one. Prior to joining the MSW program, both had known each other informally for 10 years or more, though their work with Athens community projects such as the Athens Area Homeless Shelter. Both had also worked with the local juvenile court system, working to develop a diversionary track for juvenile offenders. They both expressed a desire to help "at-risk" youth because they were themselves labeled "at-risk." Specifically, however, it was their work with the Rutland Academy and the felony drug court that inspired Lauren and Stephen to found Georgia C.L.A.Y. (Rutland Academy is a special education pre-kindergarten through 12th grade school that serves children and teens with emotional, behavioral and autism disorders.) 

Realizing that there was virtually no transition between when a juvenile is incarcerated and released back into society, Lauren and Stephen wanted to develop a support network for juveniles to reduce the high rate of recidivism. Using the training they were receiving in the MSW program, they began to develop the concept of Georgia C.L.A.Y. Their goal was to merge the clinical and community aspects of Social Work; utilizing the power in the fusion of the two.

Lauren and Stephen credit several instructors with inspiring their development of Georgia C.L.A.Y., including: Professor Jeff Skinner, Dr. Donna Bliss, Dr. David Okech, Dr. June Hopps, Dr. Michelle Carney, Dr. Ed Risler and Dr. Larry Nackerud, to name a few.

Most notably, however, Lauren and Stephen have partnered with several UGA alums to create their new agency:

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Halei Colbert (MSW '11)
Chris Papadopoulos (MSW '11)
Helen Nichols (MSW '11)
Scott Reinerth (AB '96)
Michael T. Davis (AB '03)
Benjamin Overstreet (Ph. D. '12)

Currently, Georgia C.L.A.Y. is in the process of securing contracts with government agencies in the immediate Athens area, with the goal to expand to Northeast Georgia and the rest of the state as they grow. While they ultimately have larger goals for expansion, they are focused on making a name for themselves by doing what they do really well.

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Georgia C.L.A.Y.

P.O. Box 82424

Athens, GA 30608

http://www.georgiaclay.org

Posted in: alumni,athens,MSW,school of social work,uga