Advocating for brain injury awareness in the school, in the home, in the community

Tomorrow, October 17th, the Canadian Royal Purple will be acknowledging their Purple Thursday, an annual event that takes place the 3rd Thursday in October to raise awareness about intimate partner violence and brain injury intervention.

Last week Friday, members of the Virden Royal Purple were on location at the Valleyview C-Store in Virden to collect toiletry items to pack care bags to give to survivors of domestic violence. These purple care bags will be presented to survivors in Brandon tomorrow, on Purple Thursday. The majority of survivors are women, however there are always a number of bags collected for men who have left an abusive relationship and are in need of this encouragement as well.

Virden Royal Purple member and secretary, Fran Bayless, says the Royal Purple champions the awareness of brain injury in more than just of victims of domestic violence, but also in the school system to be 'brain smart' and protect your head from concussion in sports.

The program is named, 'Brain Love' and the Canadian Royal Purple facilitates different initiatives throughout the year across the country, all to raise awareness of protecting your brain from injury.

"We work with school children, and we encourage them to create posters regarding brain injury awareness and prevention," explains Bayliss. "So, it's a learning tool within the school at a young age to look after their brain in the best way they can, say by wearing a helmet."

In the month of March, the Royal Purple presents a formal proclamation that the leader in the community signs (a mayor or a reeve) and then it is posted in the newspaper or online to remind people it is brain injury awareness and prevention month.

In May, different community organizations that the Royal Purple have worked with throughout the year will share testimonials on how the Royal Purple has made a positive impact in their community through random acts of kindness like bringing dainties to personal care homes and seniors centers.

The Canadian Royal Purple Society came into existence about 10 years ago and are an entity of their own. The Manitoba and Saskatchewan chapters partner with brain injury associations in each of their provinces to fundraise and raise awareness. Prior to that, and for almost a century, the Royal Purple were affiliated with the Elks of Canada. But again, ten years ago they became their own organization run by volunteers as a not-for-profit service group separate from the Elks.

Tomorrow is Purple Thursday, and the Canadian Royal Purple will be hosting a conference on brain injury awareness and intervention in Edmonton with keynote speakers sharing on intimate partner violence and the resulting brain injury that often follows.

The Canadian Royal Purple is also in support of C-277 which will allow the federal government financial support for brain injury associations and the work that they do with survivors.

Please listen to more with Fran Bayliss below as she shares briefly on these final two topics.