Because Laurie Ott and her non-profit organization are focused on the needs of returning wounded warriors, helping people with traumatic brain injury is a high priority.

“It’s a significant war injury,” said Ott, executive director of the CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project.

There are several programs and partnerships the organization has developed to assist those with TBI.

Families are vital to the recovery of wounded servicemen and women; however, TBI and post traumatic stress disorder can cause problems within the family.

“You cannot see it, but it can affect the family,” said Ott.

To help couples reconnect after deployment, marriage enrichment workshops have been developed with the Army and Veterans Administration chaplains. The first was held in July 2008.

Another initiative the organization worked to bring to Augusta was the Veterans Curation Project, which used stimulus money to create training jobs for wounded veterans. These veterans archive artifacts from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Augusta is one of three sites for the project.

In December, the project received the President’s Council on Historic Preservation Chairman’s Award.

Also, the organization formed a research consortium on traumatic brain injury in collaboration with Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center, the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center, the Medical College of Georgia and its school of nursing, Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center-South at Fort Gordon and Savannah River National Laboratory.

And Ott and her organization have regular roundtable committee meetings which bring together officials from Fort Gordon’s Warrior Transition Battalion, the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center, the Georgia Department of Labor and other community organizations to help address the needs of the Wounded Warrior.

“In Augusta, we innovate and put in place the programs we need,” she said.