Walking Together

A spinal cord injury destroys lives and families.  This injury doesn’t discriminate by race, income, age or gender; it can happen to anyone at anytime and no one is ever prepared. 

We have talked to hundreds of people and their families since 1999, and know that obtaining any information at all, is very difficult and limited, and in most cases, based on how to deal with the injury but rarely on how to improve or begin recovery.  Parents and spouses all say the same thing about not being prepared, doing the best they could, but years later, would have done things differently had they known then what they know now. 

Through the course of several years, we have listened and learned.  Recovery takes more than just the efforts of the client/family and Project Walk.  There needs to be community support as well, because when people join forces and work together, great things can happen; while the road to improvement and recovery is still challenging, it becomes smoother.

Walking Together is a diverse group of people involved with SCI coming together to provide support for the injured, pave a smoother path for recovery, and help change the overall perception of having a spinal cord injury.  It is made up of husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, grandparents, friends, and caring people from the community churches and businesses.  In the future, we hope to have representative doctors, nurses, physical therapists, first responders and research scientists working on the cure involved as well. 

One of the goals of Walking Together is to educate the community on the benefits of an exercise-based recovery program and change the perception that nothing can be done to change the outcome of SCI.  The outcome can only be changed when something is done to change it!  Once the perception has changed, treatment and support for recovery will change. 

Walking Together is already helping newly injured families, currently in the hospital, with direction and hope.  We now have rehab doctors from around the country visiting Project Walk® and educating their patients that there are other options.  The support network of Walking Together will help answer some of the “unknowns” that each family suffers.  The goal is to provide the right information at the right time so that each person can make the right decision regarding his/her future.  The success of exercise-based recovery is time sensitive so it is important that the families realize the urgency of starting recovery the day of the injury.

In addition to being a support and advocacy group, Walking Together will also share fundraising ideas and work to promote the common goal of increasing awareness to benefit all involved in the recovery journey of a spinal cord injury.  Everyone, from personal injury lawyers, insurance companies, spinal cord injury foundations/associations to the medical community, will be aware of the long-term benefits of an exercise-based recovery program. 

Please join us in our journey providing hope that there is a chance for life beyond a wheelchair.  To participate or for more information, please email us at walkingtogether@projectwalk.org