The Hope Project for vets and civilians recovering from TBI
The Hope Project is a pilot project and the first of its kind set up to combine military and civilian people with brain injuries on a college campus, where those recovering from traumatic brain injuries are treated as students rather than patients. The patients share two hours every Monday through Thursday, half from military and half civilian, listening to each other's experiences with their traumatic brain injury. The Hope Project encourages students to help each other increase their self-sufficiency and independence. By calling participants students, the project takes the emphasis off of healing and onto learning. The program is at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University's Northern Virginia Center. Funding for the $245,000 program comes from state government, rehabilitation groups and memorial funds, but Virginia Tech is the biggest donor. Life skills therapist Charlene Kelly said at first, students were scared or aggressive in social situations. Others cursed all the time. “It was a challenging setting to start educating in, but that's changed,” Kelly said. "People are being respectful of others and are socially integrating, and that is our goal." Since the program combines those with civilian and military backgrounds, students learn quickly about proper social behavior. Regardless of their backgrounds, Hope students understand each other's physical, cognitive and psychological struggles in performing everyday activities.
