-Karen Halgren
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Happy National SCI Awareness Month! I am Karen Halgren, the Community Resource Specialist and Peer Mentor Coordinator for the Arizona Spinal Cord Injury Association here in Phoenix. I have been here almost 9.5 years and I can honestly say I LOVE my job!
On any given day you might find me answering phone calls and emails of people looking for resources- whether a new wheelchair, adaptive vehicle, accessible housing, medical equipment and more. It can be a challenge somedays but one I look forward to taking on! If you are in need of a resource, stop by or reach out to me- [email protected] and we will find what you are looking for. If we do not have it, I will do my best to search and find. If you have a resource you think might benefit our community, please feel free to email or contact me at 602-507-4209 ext. 2 and we will reach out to them and get them into our vetted database and onto our resource area of our website here: https://www.azspinal.org/resources.html
As the Peer Mentor Coordinator, when we receive calls from the valley rehab centers or hospitals, I will reach out to our peer mentors who best match the need of the facility’s patient and send them the contact person to set up a meeting. Once they are matched, we get the mentor a backpack which is filled with local resources and promotional goodies from our amazing backpack sponsors. Our sponsors will sponsor a backpack for an entire year so each time we visit a new consumer, their information will get into the consumers hands. All the information we include is invaluable to someone newly injured, as once they leave the hospital or rehab they often might not know where to go next for a vehicle, a place to work out, vocational rehab, a support group or even an adaptive gym. We pride ourselves with sharing such valuable information. If you or a business you know serves the SCI community and would like to be included, please reach out and we will send you the information needed. If you
Meet Karen Halgren
AZSCIA's Community Resource Specialist
or someone you know would like a peer mentor, please reach out.
We will be having our next Peer Mentor Training with the Reeve Foundation on November 13th 9:30AM to 2:00PM . If you would like to become a peer mentor, can pass a background check and can attend the training, please email me and we will send you the sign up information. It can be very rewarding to follow your mentee through their journey. Sign up today if interested.