History
In 1997 a local Ventura County family experienced a horrifying event when their 17 year old daughter was involved in a near fatal auto accident. After months of hospitalization and then rehabilitation, the young woman was finally able to go home to her family. However, she had a traumatic brain injury, and life, as this family knew it, would never be the same.
This young woman not only had to learn to walk and talk again, she had to completely reconstruct her life, as did her family. Months of resources and support disappeared subsequent to coming from the hospital ~ back to silence. After many meetings with different doctors, the family began to notice the same families in the waiting rooms, dealing with the same long-term impact of brain injury. Discussions in waiting rooms turned into monthly potluck dinners with other families. The monthly potluck outgrew the family home, and 15-20 individuals living with a brain injury and family members started meeting weekly at a church in Ventura.
Searching for ways to procure more services for their loved ones, the founders of the Brain Injury Center sought 501(c)3 designation in 1998. Since then this small grassroots group has provided self-advocacy and community organizing opportunities for individuals living with a brain injury and their family members. In 2002 a grant was written to the California Department of Rehabilitation for on-site support services, community organizing and advocacy.