About Us
Our History
If there's one word that depicts how the Brain Injury Resource Foundation came into existence, it's partnership—the teaming together of people intent on making a difference, finding solutions, refusing to settle for the status quo, and eager to extend compassion and care to those outside of their personal worlds. Two such people are Karen and Joseph Moderow.
Their frustration in identifying appropriate care, services and providers for Michael grew as they learned more than 5.3 million persons in the United States lived with a disability as the result of brain injury. They were not alone. Many were in need of the same information and resources the Moderows were seeking yet each family traveled the road of brain injury rehabilitation as if it were the first time the journey had been taken. Convinced there had to be a better way, Joe and Karen Moderow determined to develop a website that would make the information needed to deal with the unique and long-term challenges of brain injury available to families all over the world.
One Family’s Story
Two weeks before he was to start college, Michael Moderow was brain injured in an early morning auto accident in rural Georgia. After four months in a coma, he seemed destined for a nursing home. But his parents, Joe and Karen, were unwilling to accept that fate until every possibility of rehabilitation had been exhausted. Having learned that the first two years of recovery are critical, they scrambled to find resources to keep their son physically and mentally challenged. It was a consuming task.
BIRF's history begins when Joe and Karen Moderow's nineteen year-old son sustained a traumatic brain injury in 1996.
Their frustration in identifying appropriate care, services and providers for Michael grew as they learned more than 5.3 million persons in the United States lived with a disability as the result of brain injury. They were not alone. Many were in need of the same information and resources the Moderows were seeking yet each family traveled the road of brain injury rehabilitation as if it were the first time the journey had been taken. Convinced there had to be a better way, Joe and Karen Moderow determined to develop a website that would make the information needed to deal with the unique and long-term challenges of brain injury available to families all over the world.
The idea for a one-stop resource center held tremendous promise, but the Moderows quickly realized this monumental undertaking would require broad-based community support to achieve. So they solicited corporate sponsors and the help of the medical community and charitable organizations. Literally thousands of volunteer hours and dollars by private individuals and professionals were donated to this project. The Resource Foundation exists today because of the dynamic partnership among many caring people, their organizations and companies.
BIRF grew from its roots as the Georgia Chapter of the Brain Injury Association of America. As we continue to service Georgia residents affected by brain injury, this subsidiary was developed to broaden our outreach to national and international populations. Today, the Brain Injury Resource Foundation is proud to be certified by Health on the Net and recognized around the world as the largest, most comprehensive online brain injury library.
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