United Spinal’s Chapter Network is the heartbeat of our organization and helps us reach wheelchair users across the nation. Meet three of our chapter leaders who are doing big things in their local communities.
Joe Gavic acquired a spinal cord injury in 1989 and was involved with the National Spinal Cord Injury Association (United Spinal’s predecessor) in Wisconsin for years. When Joe moved to McKinney, Texas, in 2018, he felt like the only wheelchair user wherever he went, and he wanted to find an SCI community.
“I wanted to reconnect with my peer group,” Joe shares. “I looked for my local chapter of United Spinal, but I didn’t find one.” The closest chapter was in Houston, more than three hours from Dallas and almost four hours from McKinney. “I reached out to United Spinal national and said, ‘Hey, what do we need to do? This is a market that I know is definitely in need.’”
He was certainly right: there are several thousand people with SCI in North Texas and many could benefit from having a chapter. With the guidance of United Spinal, Gavic took the initiative and co-founded United Spinal of North Texas in November 2018.
Mitch Tepper, PhD, has been a quad since 1982 and lived in the Northeast for decades, where he built a career around sexual health, sexuality and disability. By the early 2010s, Tepper was living in Atlanta and went to a United Spinal support group meeting, where he ran into an old friend he knew from quad rugby. The friend, Clint, mentioned that there had been a Georgia chapter, but it went defunct several years earlier.
“He asked me if I would help him start the chapter up again,” Mitch shares, and he agreed. United Spinal of Georgia launched in 2019. Mitch served as Vice President for a few years and has been President for two.
Out in New Mexico, Dustin Berg acquired a T7 SCI in a motorcycle accident in 2003. Outdoor activities were always his passion, but he couldn’t find any nearby organizations to help him get back outdoors. “In 2005, I started Global Opportunities Unlimited to help people create adaptive outdoor activities.”
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Global Opportunities Unlimited also had peer support group meetings and worked with a local rehab hospital. “I wanted to make everything more official and get funding for support groups and to pour back into our community,” Dustin shares. “It made sense for us to work with United Spinal and incorporate our support group into the United Spinal framework.”
Mentorship and Rehab Partnerships
Mentorship is a cornerstone of United Spinal’s programming. It’s where more experienced quads and paras share advice, reflections, and a bit of motivation with folks with newer injuries. In Atlanta, Mitch saw that the nearby Shepherd Center provided good rehab and guidance. But the folks who couldn’t get into Shepherd Center weren’t set up well when they went home.
“We have hundreds of young men – largely black men – who get shot, with over 50 a year ending up with spinal cord injuries,” he shares. “Few of those get into Shepherd Center, so we have been trying to target the underserved.” In 2019, he helped create a support group at this Atlanta Medical Center, which closed at the end of 2022, but members of the Georgia chapter have kept mentoring going strong.
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“A lot of things that people with early injuries really need help with is just getting back their independence, getting their life more stable, education, employment, family, housing, all that type of stuff,” Berg explains. Recognizing the big need in New Mexico, Dustin and Go Unlimited teamed up with United Spinal specifically to beef up their early peer mentorship program.
“I could get all our guys trained to be certified peer mentors. I’ve got eight or something of them trained now, and that helped us formalize our partnership with the local rehab hospital,” he says. The growth from partnering with United Spinal allowed them to secure additional funding and have an even larger impact.
United Spinal of North Texas has monthly peer mentorship at both Texas Rehab of Fort Worth and Baylor Hospital in Frisco. “Not only is it for that individual who’s newly injured, but then there’s the component that is often missed, which is the caregiver or the significant other,” Joe says. “Their questions and needing support is equally important.”
Joe also got grant funding for 500 backpacks meant to help folks with SCI get rolling. “We filled it with a lap desk, some literature, a New Mobility magazine and tools for them to start a new aspect of their life post-injury.”
Events and Activities
The chapters also host a range of fun activities and community events. One of the first grants United Spinal Association of Georgia secured was $83,000 from the Craig H. Nielsen Foundation to create an adaptive video gaming and e-sports program.
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“We were able to recruit people, and the grant included coaching, so we had the three teams,” says Mitch. “And each had six hours of coaching a week.” About a dozen people got coached to play competitively under the team name “NERVE Gaming” and there are more than 180 casual adaptive gamers on the NERVE discord server from all over the country. Mitch says that a lot of folks with fresh injuries are really into adaptive gaming, so he’s woven gaming into the work with rehab hospitals.
United Spinal Association of North Texas has monthly meet-ups all around the DFW area. They host a hybrid pickleball tournament every year as their main fundraiser, have regular adaptive bowling nights and are planning to head up a casino in August. The chapter also started a Shooting Outdoor Adaptive Recreation (SOAR) program that visits local shooting ranges with air rifles and instruction provided.
The mix of activities and community building has been great for the chapter, which now has around 400 members on its mailing list and a solid turnout at monthly events.
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Advocating for Community and Self
Finally, there’s advocacy – a major component of United Spinal’s work. “Right now, Madison Russell, our Vice President of Advocacy, is organizing a trip for our members to go to the Georgia capital for a Roll on Capitol Hill,” says Mitch. The Georgia chapter is specifically pushing for rules that will hold wheelchair companies and insurance accountable for timely repairs.
Dustin from Go Unlimited had attended United Spinal’s Roll on Capitol Hill and says national support has helped them move the needle in our state advocacy. He’s now focused on tackling Medicaid’s income and asset limits for working people with disabilities in New Mexico.
And while North Texas doesn’t have policy advocacy, Joe says “When we peer mentor, we talk about advocating for yourself” – a critical skill set for anyone with SCI.
There are 40+ United Spinal chapters across the country. To find a chapter near you, check out our Chapter Network directory. If you’d like to start a United Spinal chapter, visit this page.
