Milbank Foundation Awards United Spinal $25,000 Grant to Develop Peer Mentor Program
Jackson Heights, NY––United Spinal Association has been awarded a $25,000 grant from the Milbank Foundation for Rehabilitation to support United Spinal’s Peer Mentor Program. The goal of the program is to pair individuals who have successfully adjusted to a spinal cord injury (SCI) with newly injured people to help them become effective self-managers and skilled problem solvers, all with the intent of improving their quality of life.
“Milbank Foundation for Rehabilitation’s generous award supports United Spinal’s commitment to develop a national peer mentor program for people with spinal cord injuries,” said Paul Tobin, United Spinal’s President and CEO. “Having someone to talk with who has already been through this process gives one hope after a spinal cord injury.”
National Peer Mentor Program Director, Jerome Kleckley, described four basic principles that drive the program: “Goal setting, developing excellent problem-solving and planning skills, good self-management of personal health care issues, and becoming an effective self advocate are the tools that empower people with spinal cord injuries.”
The United Spinal Peer Mentor Program is unique in that it creates partnerships with rehabilitation facilities that become “hosts” for the program. This approach integrates the peer mentor into the volunteer program of the host agency and complements professional rehabilitation processes provided by physicians, nurses, rehabilitation and psychosocial professionals. The first four host agencies partnering with United Spinal are: The University of Rochester Medical Center in Monroe County, NY; St. Charles Hospital Rehabilitation Center in Suffolk County, NY; Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in Westchester County, NY; and Helen Hayes Hospital in Rockland County, NY.
United Spinal mentors will be men and women with SCI who are successfully managing their lives and who have completed the United Spinal Peer Mentor Training. The first training sessions for peer mentors will begin July 2007. Mentors will be trained to encourage their peers to know where specialized services for SCI exist in their community; how to facilitate contact with these services; and, develop a plan to pursue educational, employment and social goals as appropriate.
About Milbank Foundation for Rehabilitation
The Milbank Foundation for Rehabilitation was created in New York City as a public charity in 1995 as part of an historic affiliation between the International Center for the Disabled (ICD) and the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center Network. The Foundation’s primary mission is to realize Jeremiah Milbank’s vision of integrating people with disabilities into all aspects of American life. For more information, please call 212-687-7735.
About United Spinal Association
United Spinal Association is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization formed in 1946 to provide expertise, create access to resources and strengthen hope, thereby enabling people with spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI/D) to fulfill their potential as active members of their communities. United Spinal advocated for and drafted significant portions of landmark federal legislation including the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Housing Amendments Act and helped streamline VA disability benefits for injured veterans returning from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Membership is free and open to all individuals with disabilities of the spinal cord. For more information, please visit www.unitedspinal.org or call 800-404-2898.