Deborah
Dee, BMT, FAMI, Excutive Director of the
Powell River
Brain Injury Society
explained the mission of their
program:
The
Powell River Brain Injury Society is a
federally registered not for profit charity
whose mission statement is “To promote
prevention, recovery, education, community
awareness, and life beyond acquired brain
injury.” We feel strongly that persons in
our community who are affected by acquired
brain injury have access to the best
rehabilitation services, and the latest
technology, and information available.
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The
Society works for full community integration for
individuals with brain injury, Dee noted:
We
lobby, and advocate for services to be brought
to our community so our clients do not have to
travel for every service they require. We make
every effort to bring professionals in the
field to our community to educate our
professionals. We send our members to
conferences to network with peers in an effort
to learn what others are doing that is
successful, and to exchange information, and
ideas that we have found successful. We offer
professional development to our employees, and
our board members. We offer support programs,
including one to one, and group, and peer
counseling, social activities, alternate
employment skills development, and fitness, and
other programs to allow our membership to live
their best life possible. We are constantly
seeking new funding opportunities and are a
proud member agency of the Powell River and
District United Way. We work under the model
of whatever it takes, and believe strongly that
a well educated community will eventually
reduce the number of acquired brain injury
incidents in our city.
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The
focus of the Society is on community living in Powell River, and
assisting their clients with education, training and
advocacy. This is what makes organizations like
the Powell River Brain Injury Society so exciting, and
valuable as it helps to empower it's members, and
advocate for full inclusion. Community reintegration
for individuals with brain injury, and other
disabilities is important to us here at Northeast
Center, as it is the centerpiece of our mission, and we
feel a kinship to organizations like the Powell
River Brain Injury Society who work toward the
same.
Services at the Powell River Brain
Injury Society include:
- Individualized
Support
- Group
Support
- Disability
Assistance
- Community
Awareness
- Education
and Prevention
- Community
Rehabilitation
- Case
Management
- Referrals
- Resource
Library
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The
Powell River Brain Injury Society website is
new. It was launched in June of 2006 to coincide
with Brain Injury Awareness Month in Canada, and was designed
by four students from Malaspina University-College.
The website is easy to navigate and tells you a lot
about the Society. There is a section that
introduces you to their community. From there
you can link to unique features such as a monthly
calendar of activities and events, and local
links. There is a personal stories section, and a
newsletter that is being developed. The Society
just launched it's own message board for its members, and
you can access that, and read their postings. These
features are new and the reason we like to highlight
new websites is that it is always interesting to go
back, and see how sites grow. In this case it
will be fun to see how the members of the
Powell River
Brain Injury Society
use their message board, and
personal stories sections. It reminds us of the
early days of the web when Sagasha started the TBIChat
website over ten years ago, and
how that site grew with extensive message boards, and individual stories section.
You can easily find out what is going on at the
Powell
River Brain Injury Society by using its printable
calendar. The Society has a daily
"Jailhouse Cafe," health and fitness groups,
art groups, and support groups.
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"Don't forget to wear your helmet."
"Brainiac," an animated character on the
Powell River Brain Injury Society website educates
visitors about brain injury prevention.
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The site boasts a section on education, and prevention. The
Society has a "Brain Squad" that goes out to
schools in their district, which educates children, and
teaches prevention. Dee told us that their "Brain
Squad" team members "has garnered rock star
status, with the grade four students wanting
autographs!" You can learn about these programs
more fully on their site.
The website also uses a flash animation that tells the story of
"Brainiac," an animated character who educates
visitors about brain injury prevention.
You can learn how to volunteer from their site and you
can easily make a donation to the Powell River Brain
Injury Society from their site through PayPal®.
There
is an ever-increasing selection of links on their
website which includes links to educational sites,
movies, and books about brain injury, local sites and
more.
Brain injury societies are really the grass root
organizations that have fueled change for individuals with
brain injuries here in the states. Powell River
Brain Injury Society continues that
tradition in
Canada. It is a great organization, and their
website says a lot about the good work that they do.
Northeast Center for Special Care is pleased to
present the Powell River Brain Injury Society
as our website of the month for
August, 2006. They
are just a click away, and don't forget to bookmark them so you can
visit again.
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