Exclusive Brain Injury Clubhouse Member Interview Airs on WABE FM / 90.1, Public Broadcasting of Atlanta

Online, June 28, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Side by Side is proud to partner with this special project of StoryCorps, called the Memory Loss Initiative. Recently 6 pairs of members and caregivers recorded very moving interviews when StoryCorps spent a day with us here at the Clubhouse. Tomorrow's airing features Frank and Claudia in the sweet and very moving excerpt of their chat with each other. More excerpts of StoryCorps interviews will soon be featured on www.SidebySideClubhouse.org.

"Side by Side members are you and me," says Cindi Johnson, Executive Director of Side by Side. "We're the young mother hit by a drunk driver on the way home from work or the convenience store clerk who survived a shootout during a robbery. And now we get to tell our stories months and years after the public has heard of our miraculous survival. Life with brain injury rarely makes the news, yet it does continue and we are both changed and grateful for this second chance at life. Our families feel validated and proud to share the profound changes to their lives as they support their loved one who can no longer remember how to order food in a restaurant or whether they showered this morning. StoryCorps offers us that chance to heal ourselves and touch others whose lives are or will be touched by brain injury."

StoryCorps, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to recording, preserving, and sharing the stories of all Americans, visited the Side by Side Brain Injury Clubhouse on Friday, May 28, 2010 as part of its Memory Loss Initiative. Since 2006, StoryCorps' Memory Loss Initiative has supported and encouraged people with various forms of memory loss to share their stories with loved ones and future generations.

StoryCorps interviews are conducted between two people who know and care about each other. A trained StoryCorps facilitator guides the participants through the interview process. At the end of each 40-minute recording session, participants walk away with a CD of their interview. With their permission, a second copy is archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Segments of select interviews may also air nationally on NPR's Morning Edition.

StoryCorps has partnered with Side by Side to collect a total of six (6) interviews from the Atlanta area. The taping coincides with the Clubhouse's 10th anniversary celebration - a major milestone in providing support for individuals living with traumatic brain injury with the new "Put Yourself in My Place" Tribute Fund. In recognition of the progress that Clubhouse members have made in rebuilding their lives, the Atlanta-based nonprofit has launched an educational and advocacy Tribute Fund campaign that will shed light on the major causes of brain injury - motor vehicle accidents, falls, violent assaults, sports or recreation and military service injuries. The campaign also highlights the under-reported prevalence of brain injury - more than six times the incidence of breast cancer, HIV/Aids, spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis combined.