2018 FIRST HALF REPORT

Some of the highlights so far this year include:

• Six individuals awarded Road To Recovery grants of $12,000 to support continued exercise therapy
• Established partnerships with six organizations providing SCI-specific therapies that have offered significant reductions in the cost of their services
• Personal outreach to nine SCI rehab facilities in Northern California, conducting presentations to their leadership and medical teams to better inform them of our capabilities to support them
• Delivered 30 Care Packages for the newly injured to six rehab centers 
• Scheduled and organized our first Mobile Clinic in San Luis Obispo for September 22nd
• Collaborated with United Spinal Association and organized the largest-ever Northern California Peer Mentor Training day for 27 individuals and medical professionals
• Scheduled our Inaugural Fundraising Party to take place on Saturday, October 13th

Road To Recovery

We launched this program, for those with no financial resources or insurance coverage to pay for continual rehab, in April and have so far funded six individuals for a total of $12,000 and have several other applicants in the pipeline we’re currently evaluating. Our goal is to fund a minimum of 10 persons in 2018 at $20,000 and our hope is, depending on our success with fundraising, to approve more applicants this year.

Fabian suffered a spinal cord injury in 2017 following a significant vehicular accident that injured his spine in the Lumbar region. Thanks to the R2R grant, we were able to fund 30 hours of exercise therapy to continue with his recovery.

"Thank you for approving my brother to be a recipient of the Road To Recovery grant. My parents and all my family are grateful for your support in Fabian's recovery via continued therapy.  Thank you for your time and dedication to the SCI community." 
– Liz, Fabian’s sister

Jessica, 30, was injured in a mountain biking accident about a year ago, resulting in paralysis from waist down. We were impressed by her positive attitude, energy and determination and funded her for 30 hours of exercise therapy to maximize her independence.

"Thank you so much for this opportunity. I am excited to challenge and push myself towards total independence! I look forward to getting to learn from Char, as well as, both of you. Going through the interview process has opened my eyes to additional opportunities that I didn’t know existed. Thank you again." 
- Jessica

Care Package

We have continued with our outreach to Northern California hospitals and rehab centers to introduce them to our Care Packages and provide them with as many as they would need while continuing our direct fulfillment of the Care Packages to individuals in need.

This is an area that has proven to be more challenging than we anticipated as the level of interest and motivation of the leaders at such facilities varies from one location to another. To date, we have delivered 30 care packages which is significantly less than the number required to ensure every newly injured individual is given access to vital information and resources. We will redouble our efforts and evolve our approach to ensure every new SCI patient in Northern California receives the information and resources they need for their journey.

"NorCal SCI has provided us important information and resources (including Care Packages) that we have passed directly on to our SCI patients which will be of use to them after they leave rehab and continue their recovery."

Mary Cafarella-Ake, M.S SLP
Director of Rehabilitation Services
Alta Bates Summit Medical Center

Mobile Clinic

We recently announced our first Mobile Clinic will take place in San Luis Obispo on Saturday, September 22nd at the SLO Noor Foundation Clinic. We have successfully recruited a team of experienced SCImedical professionals and are excited about offering this opportunity to bring free consultations for the SCI community where it is most needed. Thank you to our volunteers and the SLO Noor Foundation for making this possible.

Medical Community Outreach

We have visited and conducted presentations to nine SCIRehab facilities in Northern California, leaving us with one last facility to visit. Those facilities visited are: 

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, California Pacific Medical Center, Dignity Health Sacramento, Palo Alto Veterans Hospital, Leon S. Peters Rehab Center (Fresno), San Joaquin Valley Rehab Hospital (Fresno), John Muir Medical Center (Walnut Creek), Dominican Hospital (Santa Cruz) 

We will continue to develop our relationships with all rehab facilities in Northern California to best serve their newly-injured patients. 

SCI Community Outreach

Collaborating with United Spinal Association, we organized and delivered a Peer Mentoring training on the campus of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center for 27 individuals (19 persons with SCI, one family member, seven medical professionals).

Equipment Donations

Although not one of our original goals for the year, we have developed a durable medical equipment donation exchange that allows individuals in need to have access to manual and electric lift systems, power and manual wheelchairs, standing frames, walkers and crutches just to name a few.

Some of the things in life, we take so granted for. One example is the ability to get a drink of water in the middle of the night. For Mike (pictured to the right), because of his high-level paralysis, required his care provider to wake up in order to perform that task. Through a donated specially-designed Drink-Aide, Mike is now able to independently drink water without requiring any assistance.
"Not sure how you got this out so fast. Can tell you it was set up on the side of Mike's bed that night and he has once again been enjoying drinking ice cold water put into the bottle through the night . We both send our much thanks for the Drink-Aid bottle and also the the person that donated to you guys. It's really a real blessing for Mike over the last few nights and many more to come."
 -Scott, Mike's care provider

Fundraising

Your donations have provided us with a significant ability to quickly launch programs. Many of our programs are scalable and as we push with our efforts to expand such programs, and begin the planning of new ones in 2019, we are pursuing additional funding strategies. Our ”Inspire” Inaugural Fundraising Party in October involves one such effort. We have also applied for three grants through various foundations and though first-year non-profits are generally not given serious consideration, our goal is to get on the radar screen of these foundations as we apply in subsequent years. Additionally, we’re now being sought by corporations serving the SCI community who are interested in becoming corporate sponsors which we’re in the midst of developing guidelines for. Our fundraising goal for this calendar year is over $75,000 and any additional funds raised can go directly into our scalable programs. We are also developing strategies to grow sustainable fundraising in order to expand the much needed support for the years ahead. 

Social Media

We have assembled a team of young and talented individuals charged with expanding our social media footprint on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. We hope you will friend or follow us on the various platforms we’re on. Year-to-date, our web site has registered over 9,000 unique visitors with over 24,000 page views and our weekly newsletter has eclipsed 700 subscribers, both receiving continual praise for their completeness, accuracy and relevance. We can confidently say that there are not many organizations of our kind in the U.S. with this level of digital offering and we're in the midst of developing a strategy to increase our search rankings which should expand our recognition further.

Angel Investors

Any family, individual or organization contributing $1,000 or more is listed on our Angel Investors Board. We would like to specifically recognize our “Angels” for their generosity, kindness and financial support.

Jordan and Jo-Ann Plofsky
Franklin Elieh
Carl McGrew
Nick and Julie Struthers
Bill and Teresa Hata
Alex and Shoko Michael
Rick and Eileen Brooks
Mike and Diane Naar
Bill Johnson & Terri Lobdel
Anonymous
Simon and Melanie Dunning
Anonymous
The Tailo Family
Marduke Yousefpor
Joan and Matthew Scott
Janet Elieh
Polly Redfield
Ernest Chung
Mike Hutton & Donna MacIsaac
Joe and Amber DeLeare
Dave and Margo Moore
Richard and Lani Cliff
Ken and Michelle Daxer and family.
The Bejan Family
Chemical Safety Technology
Nanosilicon, Inc.
Nanosilicon Oxide