Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors Advocacy Overview

Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors Advocacy: Craig Part Twenty Five

I discussed the traumatic brain injury survivors advocacy groups that Craig is either a part of or that he started himself.

Community College Traumatic Brain Injury Support

So, you’re currently part of a community college?

I assist here.  They use my curriculum and this is my third year doing this with them.

So what is the nature of your relationship with them?

I kind of co-teach, I just kind of help out.  Actually I only planned on being here one year, and this is my third year.  I’m just kind of helping Gail.  Gail is who I’m working with, and she’s got it, she just don’t have confidence in herself, but she’s just got it so good.

What is Gail’s job?

Gail’s one of the teachers here.

And who is she teaching?

She teaches a number of things, but we do a brain injury curriculum (for traumatic brain injury survivor support).  It’s a required curriculum they do.  Our focus really is for folks you want to go to work, because they have some incredible programs.   I’ll get into that, but they, these are folks that want to be able to work, that haven’t been able to work, but folks that want to get better education to get better employment.  It’s really focused, this aspect of it, to get people working.

But we also have some students here that want to be more involved in community too, so we do a lot of community things.   But it’s just, for people who have been isolated,  and want to do something with their lives.  There’s no lack of people (who need that.)

So let me get an over breadth of what it is that you’re currently doing in terms of advocacy and traumatic brain injury survivor support.  You have your Moving On, what’s the status of that?

That, that’s education.   It is just creating leaders.  That was my main goal is to help create more leaders.   As we’ve grown, we need more people to lead, without, you can’t keep growing if you don’t have leaders…

And then you have the Moving In, which is a corollary to that?

Correct, once you have your plan and it’s working, what now?

Then you have the work you do here at community college and then you have, is it the Traumatic Brain Injury Survivor’s Network?

Right, well then I make my money through the high schools.  That’s one grant, that I get, I work with high school students, currently I’m doing 11 high schools around our state.  It’s, part of their classroom time I’m teaching  them  accommodations as part of traumatic brain injury survivors support).   It’s a curriculum called Reaching My Own Greatness. It is   developing what they’re good at, what they like to do.

So you’re teaching, non-brain injury high school students?

Brain injury, all, any students with disabilities.

So it’s high school students with disabilities – you’re teaching  them  what?

Number One,  to appreciate their gifts that they have.  Because they’re in a tough system, people don’t realize what they go through.  It starts off with their gifts, that they’re great, that they’re perfect the way they are, that it’s society that’s having a problem.

Teaching them  to dream again.   It was unheard of for students to go to college.   We’re getting students graduating with Masters.  We had our first, you’ll appreciate this, our first TBI survivor graduate with a law degree.   She’s on our board this year.  She actually knows you.

When you say, she’s on our board, board of what?

I have my own non-profit which is the Traumatic Brain Injury  Survivor’s Network. And then, I also have a subsidiary under People First International.   I am very loyal to People First (a traumatic brain injury survivor support group).

Next in Part Twenty Six – TBI Survivor’s Network