CP NOW

To optimize the lifelong health, wellness and inclusion of people with cerebral palsy and their families.

We will accomplish this by:

1. Our organization is working to identify gaps in educational resources and knowledge translation that would serve to support caregivers and and individuals impacted by these conditions. We are focused on developing and distributing the missing educational resources our community needs.
2. Funding promising research focused on addressing the diversity of symptoms and conditions related to having cerebral palsy.
3. Hosting and/or promoting adaptive physical programs and wellness campaigns.

Together with the CP community and our professional partners, we will work to advance neurorecovery, wellness and ongoing support for individuals and their families.

1. Development of educational materials: We have a scientific advisory council as well as partnerships with CP and early brain injury experts throughout the world via the professional Academy for CP--AACPDM and the Cerebral Palsy Research Network (CPRN). Together with our community volunteers we work with subject experts to identify knowledge and resource gaps and work together to develop new resources like our Cerebral Palsy Tool Kit and Wellbeing Guide for Caregivers. We make these resources available for free through our website and allow consumers and hospitals to purchase printed copies through Amazon. https://cpnowfoundation.org

2. We fundraise to gather the funds we need for our research program. Currently, we are focused on funding pilot studies (approx $25,000) that will bring new ideas forward and allow researchers to pursue larger grants with government funding sources like NIH.

3. Physical activity/exercise is a new area of focus for CP. Most people with CP age into adulthood with debilitating chronic pain and loss of function. Keeping people active and providing opportunities for movement and maintaining range of motion as long as possible and wherever possible is vital particularly as heart disease and diabetes are also risk factors associated with being more sedentary. We will partner with local and national organizations to sponsor adaptive activities and wellness campaigns to help people understand the importance and potential benefits of exercise. This year we co-sponsored our first wellness even, an adaptive swim day for people with physical impairments of all ages. These partnerships require modest financial investment and our goal now is to co-host activities nationwide with our volunteer base staffing these events and providing educational materials.

We maintain an timeline of action on our website for visitors to view our accomplishments and our immediate goals:

https://cpnowfoundation.org/timeline/

We are moving closer to empowering consumers (families and individuals with CP) to understand what they need to know, ask for or seek out to live their healthiest and most fulfilling life.