New Grants Announced for Traumatic Brain Injury State Partnership Program

By Thom Campbell, TBI Program Manager, Administration on Disabilities at ACL

There’s a lot going on with ACL’s Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) program lately, and I wanted to share a few of the highlights.

We recently awarded 24 three-year cooperative agreements under two new funding opportunities for ACL’s Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) State Partnership Program. [This program is funded under the Traumatic Brain Injury Act of 2014 (P.L. 113-196), which also saw the transfer of this program to the Administration for Community Living.]

The goal is to create and strengthen a system of services and supports that maximizes the independence, well-being, and health of people with traumatic brain injuries across the lifespan, their family members, and their support networks. ACL funded two tiers of grantees through this program: Partner State Grants and Mentor State Grants. Grantees from both tiers will work together, with support from the TBI Coordinating Center, to maximize the program’s impact nationally.

ACL awarded Mentor State Grants to more established states that will maintain and expand their TBI infrastructure, while also mentoring Partner State Grantees, and working together with ACL to create a national, culturally competent, person-centered professional development training infrastructure for TBI service professionals. With this tiered approach, ACL was able to award grants to eleven states that did not previously have this funding during the last four-year period!