THE 5/22 CAPITAL CAMPAIGN: Why we are undertaking this effort

Having met a few thousand persons with a spinal cord injury, we are acutely aware of the failure of the insurance industry and the healthcare system that abandons those with SCI at the most vulnerable time of their lives.  Sadly, over the past couple of decades, we have seen the average length of stay in a rehab hospital following a life-altering spinal cord injury reduce down from 70 days to an average of 19 days in 2020 in Northern California.

Spinal cord injuries are hard and devastating, robbing a majority of those who experience them of their independence and ability to become a productive and contributing member of the society. When we began talking about starting the organization four years ago, our overarching vision was to continually work toward a better solution to address this issue. 

In October of 2020, we announced the launch of our “5/22 Capital Campaign”, an effort to raise a minimum of $500,000 by May of 2022 to help achieve that overarching vision of offering continuing rehab to those newly injured as well as develop a program for those with longer lengths of injuries in order to maintain their physical health and mental wellbeing.  We will accomplish this by opening a facility of our own by May of 2022 so that each person would have the opportunity to regain as much independence as possible.

Nick & Franklin, co-founders
NorCal SCI

learn how spinal cord injuries affect the lives of over 15,000 individuals in the United States every year

Meet Arash Bayatmakou who experienced his spinal cord injury in 2012 as a result of a fall and learn what is the typical experience of a newly-injured individual.

Arash explains his journey following the injury and the impact of the health insurance plan and rehab hospital on his recovery.

why are the healthcare and insurance industries not addressing this?

Kevin and Tricia will speak to the issue of what they, as parents of their child, faced with the health insurance coverage while Jo can speak about its impact on her recovery and independence.
Discuss the cost of care while inpatient ($10-$12,000 per day), and also how it forces many to seek social safety net programs that then effectively discourage people from going back to work because of the high cost of care. The video will feature the three of them together.

WHAT ARE THE SPECIFICS OF OUR PLAN?

Nick & Franklin discuss in 60 seconds what our vision would look like and specific goals we want to achieve, from starting out with a modest program to serve 30-40 individuals in year one, 60-80 in year two and significantly expand in the following years including developing a state-of-the-art facility in Northern California

HOW CAN YOU HELP MAKE A MEANINGFUL DIFFERENCE?

This is our CALL TO ACTION section. This is where we need a SCI survivor/spokesperson who could really dig into people's hearts, minds and wallet. We introduce 9-year-old Emma Whaley who experienced her SCI when she was just seven. We want people to really understand the impact of SCI on someone who had such a full life and was so active. She has experienced a lot of physical struggles due to her SCI, yet she is so full of life in spite of it all. Our goal is to take people through the lows and highs of Emma’s life post-injury and make people tear up a bit.

Another approach would be doing a montage of videos of the six people we have sent to Neuroworx with a voiceover.

Franklin can come at the tail end and explain how people can help us achieve our goals.