Our Forgotten Warriors to Launch Community Reintegration Facility

Our Forgotten Warriors to Launch Community Reintegration Facility in Lacey Washington to Aid Wounded Service Men and Women Become More Independent

August 2, 2010, Carol Blake CEO of Our Forgotten Warriors (OFW) announced that caring for our wounded warriors the right way and helping them get back into their community after injury is long overdue. Ms. Blake stated the founder of Our Forgotten Warriors, Brandon Gauvreau, suffered a hemorrhagic stroke at McChord Air Force Base on July 19, 2007. After spending almost three years at several inpatient rehabilitation facilities Mr. Gauvreau began to come to the realization that there were no resources available to teach him the independent skills he lost as a result of his brain injury, so upon that premise Our Forgotten Warriors was founded.

Our Forgotten Warriors program offerings encompass a list of non-traditional types of therapy. For example, we will have an automotive shop and a music room so our program participant will have the opportunity to engage in a new hobby. Additionally, our program will only be available to active duty military and veterans of the recent wars in an effort to encourage peer to peer support as part of the healing process.

Our Forgotten Warriors hope to work with DoD and VA on this much needed program that will fill the huge gap that exists in care for our wounded service members. Currently, after hospitalization and rehabilitation, our veterans are being released to their homes with the expectation that their caregivers will teach them the skills they need to become independent. But often the caregiver is not aware of the amount time or patience involved in taking on such a task which leaves the wounded service member without the support they need and or require.

Our plan is to launch the first facility in Washington State by the summer of 2011, dependent upon funding from grants and donations. Thereafter, our plan is to open a facility in every state and the often neglected islands of Guam and American Samoa so that our wounded service members will learn the skills they need to reintegrate into their communities while having the support of their family members.

About Our Forgotten Warriors

Our Forgotten Warriors was founded by Brandon Gauvreau who suffered an acquired brain injury at McChord AFB on July 19, 2007. Our Forgotten Warriors mission is to focus on treatment for acquired brain injury (ABI) traumatic brain injury (TBI )and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD )by providing integrated quality programs and services for individuals with physical and cognitive impairment to help them develop to their fullest physical, psychological, social and economic potential consistent with their cultural traditions and their environmental limitations.

For more information please visit http://www.ourforgottenwarriors.org/
For more information contact Carol Blake at 360-280-9055 or Christian Boad at 360-427-2815