The Georgia Clients Council (GCC) was created in 1976 through the Georgia Legal Services Program. The Georgia Clients Council is primarily a rural statewide organization of low-moderate income grassroots community-based leaders. The Clients Council has experience great success in educating its members and creating opportunities to address issues and change attitudes which have had an adverse affect on immigrants, youth, the elderly, and people of color, the disabled and others who have been disenfranchised.

Earlier in the Clients Council history local councils were actively involved in monitoring state and federal programs targeted for low income Georgians. Trained GCC members accompanied their peers to disability hearings, public housing meetings, education tribunals, etc. Georgia Clients Council leaders and advocates, serve on local state and national boards to represent the interest of economically deprived Georgians. In 2004 Ms. Johnnie Mae Flournoy was recognized by NLADA (National Legal Aid Defenders Association) for her advocacy work in Columbus Georgia. Currently, GCC chairman Terence Dicks serves on the Equal Justice Commission which was formed 2005 under the direction Justice Leah Sears to address equity in the legal system. Several members have gone on to become elected officials in their respective communities and a voice for the voiceless. Skilled advocates are still working on behalf of those needing advocacy support.

In June 1993 the Georgia Clients Council convened its first Community Leadership Empowerment Institute (CLEI) at Boggs Rural Life Center, in Keysville Georgia. The CLEI was first funded in part by the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The Community Leadership Empowerment Institute focuses GCC's work on development on community based leadership skills and initiatives. The general areas of development included: (1) volunteering as community advocates (2) acquiring knowledge and skills to identify and respond to community and group needs and goals, (3) increase citizen participation (4) understanding and addressing issues of the economy which affect all communities (5) developing a multi-cultural understanding and strategies for community problem solving (6) providing guidance to agencies serving economically deprived communities and (7) working in collaboration with other organizations to address policies and regulations.

Ten years later, at the August 2003 Annual Meeting and Conference of the Georgia Clients which was again held at Boggs Rural Life Center, the Client Council members voted unanimously to rename the CLEI, "The Veda McKnight Community Leadership Empowerment Institute (VMCLEI)". Veda McKnight served as coordinator for twenty-five years.* The Georgia Clients Council recaptured and refocused its work on areas address at the 1993 meeting, by developing the following clusters: (1) Legal Referrals & Assistance, (2) Lay Advocacy (3) Leadership Development (4) Micro- Enterprise and Workforce Development (5) Community Economic Development (6) Fundraising Development and Technology Accessibility.