Events and Updates

Preparing for Holiday stress

Tools and strategies for handling holiday stress

with guest facilitator

Amy Pfarr - CBIS, M.Ed.

at Our Kitsap Brain Injury Support Group on October 12th

3 PM to 430 PM

Use the contact form to let us know you would like to attend this session

Contact Us


Contact your regional representative

Washington State transitioned from the Brain Injury Alliance of Washington (BIAWA) case management service to a 2-1-1 brain injury information and referral call center on Oct 1st, 2022. The BIAWA developed into the go-to resource in Washington State after the passing of the Tommy Manning Act. The BIAWA has come to be known as our brain injury institution. Before the transition, it was suspected by brain injury survivors that a call center would cause more harm the good. Our research confirms these suspicions as the depression and anxiety scores increased.

The Tommy Manning Act, also known Traumatic Brain Injury Strategic Partnership Act of 2007 (RCW 74.31), was the first time that our state specifically addressed issues related to persons with Traumatic Brain Injury. This comprehensive legislation created an advisory council, a funding source for services and the development of a comprehensive statewide information and referral network for individuals with traumatic brain injuries. Additionally, it developed a statewide registry to collect data and for statewide planning.

Kitsap Brain Injury is wholly nonpartisan and has no political agenda. However, we do support BIAWA in its funding conflict with the Washington State TBI planning committee, the Washington State legislature, and the Washington State governor's office.

We have been supplied a copy-and-paste document to email your representative. You can download the document and follow the instructions.

Download here


Create your own healing sanctuary

Start small and you will be surprised by the calming and healing effects

I normally start with Miracle Grow garden soil and plant starters

Remember to set up a watering routine

If you want a simple gardening guide check out the following website.

Want a Garden? 7 Easy Ways to Start for Non-Gardeners

Go to external site

Gardening tips written by occupational therapists

Gardening tips

Do you have better gardening links? Send them to us using the contact us page and we may share them with everyone

Latest News

The pandemic affected us all in the past year. We switched to online groups early on, and I am sorry to say that our group was one of the few support groups to survive the pandemic. Last March, due to the pandemic, the Brain Injury Alliance of Washington discontinued fiscal support to external groups. In June, we began a founding committee to begin formalizing Kitsap Brain Injury to become a nonprofit 501c3.

The latest information is that long-time support group member Donovan Viet recently joined the founding committee. Donovan was recently awarded his Ph.D. in education. Let’s all welcome Dr. Donovan! With this addition, we had to update our information with the state. The turnaround on this update is about seven weeks. Once completed, we will register as a 501c3. The 501c3 process normally takes six months to a year.

Latest Updates

December 25th update - Early in the year we learned the Brain Injury Alliance of Washington (BIAWA) would no longer be an umbrella for local affiliates like us. A great deal of research, discussion and strategizing led to filing documents to become a Washington corporation. Kitsap Brain Injury’s official ‘birthday’ was July 25, 2022 and next week I’ll be in Olympia wrapping up details enabling us to file as an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Big news indeed!

January 8th update - We submitted the paperwork to register as a 501c3 on December 28, 2002. The anticipated turnaround time is 2 to 4 weeks, so we should know around the middle to the end of January

January 23rd update - Great news!!! Great news!!! I called the IRS to check the status of our application and was surprised to find it our 501c3 status was approved on January 13th! WOW! We should be receiving our determination letter, hopefully, this week.

January 25th update - We received our approved 501c3 determination letter and immediately filed as a charity in Washington State

January 26th update - Extremely Great news!!! We received the confirmation of our charity status

January 27th update - To separate and secure the organization's funds, we are in the process of opening a bank account.

February 1st update - We are in the process of electing authorized signers and finalizing our internal banking processes

February 19th update - We have elected authorized signers and are in in the process of getting our 2nd meeting minutes signed by all board members

March 14th update -We are excited to inform you that we opened a bank account

It took us around a year, a bunch of arguments, and as of March 14th, I am proud to say that we are officially

OPEN!!!

A special thanks go to everyone who helped with the formalization process

Thank you for your patience and we hope to see everybody soon!

Online Groups

Online Support Groups

We are pleased to announce that we have two online support offerings in 2022.

The Monthly Support Group and the new TBI Koffee Klatch

Our monthly support groups meets on the second Thursday of the month at 3:00-4:30 PM

The Koffee Klatch meets every Monday at 10 AM

For more information please visit the online groups page

Online Groups

Brain Injury Today Podcast

The podcast is produced in collaboration with Goal 17 Media.

The BIAWA produces a podcast series for brain injury survivors. The series includes several great topics. Brain Injury Today is the official podcast of the Brain Injury Alliance of Washington

Podcast Website

Giving the gift of warmth

Research conducted by the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) has identified that approximately one out of every two homeless people are brain injury survivors.

As the weather is getting harsher and temperatures are colder, our brain injury survivors want to help. We have identified the best way to do that is through donating blankets. Coats, etc. to local area community organizations.

We have identified these organization for you to safely donate and spead warmth this winter