Happy Hour Service Center Expands group home community

Since 1956, Happy Hour Service Center has served developmentally disabled residents of Houston County.  Since the 1993 creation of Falcon Park, Inc. group homes, the center provided residential services.

Thursday afternoon, Stan Blaxton, executive director, staff and board of directors held a groundbreaking ceremony celebrating the Falcon Park expansion, which includes two new group home complexes expected to be built by summer 2020.

“Today is a special day,” Blaxton said. “We have been talking about this for two years and God has blessed us with this opportunity to provide more homes.”

Happy Hour is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization and a United Way Agency, which is CARF accredited. Happy Hour serves developmentally disabled adults, and the goal is to teach them life skills, work ethics and social skills. Individuals served are trained in daily living skills, communication skills, social skills and work adjustment skills. Each individual is guided toward reaching his or her fullest potential.

“We currently have an average of 180 plus adults with developmental disabilities working at Happy Hour within our five workshops,” he continued. “We train them every day in work skills, social skills and life skills. The basic life skills include washing clothes, making beds, cooking and other ways in which a person must take care of him or herself. The ultimate goal is to get the adults to graduate from the center in order to hold a job and live on their own within the community. Some however are unable to live on their own and we have currently about 42 individuals who are living in Falcon Park, Inc. now.”

The two new homes that are to be built by summer of 2020 will house four individuals per home. Blaxton said they designed the homes to where each individual will have their own suite. DeLoach Architects serve as head architect for the project and Rescorp LLC the head contractor. Blaxton said Happy Hour set aside funding to pay for most of the project and Morris Bank would provide the remainder of the cost.

“We are so very grateful to all who are involved in this project,” Blaxton said. “Once a month, we get calls asking if we could provide housing for individual, which that is the hardest thing to provide, but again we are extremely blessed to be able to expand our group home now. We want our folks to be proud of where they live, we want to create a very nice community of one where they can be proud of, and that is what we are going to continue to provide.”