Nearly 100 Tennessee Rehabilitation Center Graduates Face Brighter Future
TRC Students Take Steps Toward A New Beginning and Independence After Graduation
NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Rehabilitation Center in Smyrna, Tenn., will honor nearly 100 graduates – students whose disabilities include traumatic brain injury, mental retardation and blindness are among graduates who have gained new skills to help them toward a brighter future and self-sufficiency. The skill sets gained for job training ranged from commercial cleaning and auto maintenance to business education and food service/hospitality. The commencement program will be held on Friday, April 27.
Kelli Beam, Director of Membership for the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce will deliver the TRC commencement address. A student speaker will share the podium during the graduation program which begins at 10 a.m. in the center’s gymnasium.
This is a tremendous opportunity for the students at TRC, said Assistant Commissioner of Rehabilitation Services, Cherrell Campbell-Street. The program is changing lives every day and now 98 new graduates will experience a brighter future because of the skills gained from this program.
The Tennessee Rehabilitation Center is a state-operated comprehensive rehabilitation facility and is one of eight such centers in the nation. TRC provided Vocational Rehabilitation services to nearly 1200 students in FY 2011 and has a 73% employment rate from 2010. Since opening its doors in 1977, the TRC has provided life and job skills training to more than 32,000 Tennesseans living with disabilities.
Services are provided on campus and the majority of students live in residential units on campus while receiving services. The TRC is located at 460 9th Ave., Smyrna, just east of the Smyrna Airport near Sam Ridley Parkway. For more information on the center, please visit http://tn.gov/humanserv/rehab/trc.html or call (615) 459-6811.
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