March is Brain Injury Awareness Month — and Empower House is ready to celebrate.
The downtown Davenport nonprofit provides community services for adults who have survived any form of brain injury due to a stroke, tumor, car accident, seizure, infection, fall and others, according to a news release.
Empower House will celebrate its work and growth while raising funds for its programming at its second annual Spaghetti Supper from 4-7 p.m. Saturday, March 25, at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport. The event is open to the public, and admission is $5.
While often ill-defined or misunderstood, the Brain Injury Alliance of Iowa estimates that some 100,000 Iowans are living with long-term disabilities after surviving a brain injury, according to the release. Brain injury survivors often are left with limited resources once they finish therapy. But as Iowa’s only brain injury Clubhouse, Empower House seeks to help survivors thrive after therapy so they may reach their full potential, according to the release.
To help carry out their work, Empower House representatives recently visited the state capitol to meet with legislators to discuss issues Iowa brain injury survivors face. In addition, Empower House founders Claire Motto Steil, Missey Heinrichs, Mickey Owens and Kami Holst also were recognized this month with the Brain Injury Alliance of Iowa’s 2023 Jean Kelly Professional(s) of the Year Award at the 31st annual Best Practices Conference in Des Moines, the release states.
“We were really honored to be recognized for the work we do,” Claire Motto Steil, who is also the organization’s executive director, said in the release. “This reinvigorates our belief that survivors (and their families) deserve more, and we’ll use this as motivation to keep pushing the envelope.”
As the only resource of its kind in the state, Empower House is proud to be a leader in the community for survivors and their families, the release states. This spring, the organization will include a fourth day of operations to better serve even more people.
For more information about the Spaghetti Supper or Empower House, visit empowerhouseqca.org or call (563) 232-1002.
