Nadine Lund, mother of a teen TBI survivor, and Judy Dettmer, executive director of the Colorado Traumatic Brain Injury Trust Fund, share this discussion of the Family Leadership Training Institute as a pathway for TBI families to become involved. The Family Leadership Training Institute, patterned after a program in Connecticut, offers 11 weeks of study for candidates for leadership positions on various boards and for select citizen appointments toward strengthening communities and families.

Dettmer shares her experience in a government position that depends on various appointees and boards, indicating a need for more families of TBI survivors to become involved and gain training. A similar pilot program in Connecticut reaped results shared in video interviews with participants. The program includes self assessment tools for comparing parents' childhoods with those of today's youths.

Lund speaks of how she accepted Dettmer's invitation to the program and her experiences. Lund was honored during BIAC's awards banquet of 2009 for her citizen advocacy at the State Capitol.

Contacts are available for groups in various locales around Colorado, and for subsequent classes. Folks wishing to "get involved" are invited.

This session on "Family Leadership Training Institute" was part of the 28th Annual Conference of the Brain Injury Association of Colorado in October 2010 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.