Type Non-Profit 501c3 | Founded Founded 2007 | |
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Founder Christiaan Bailey & Frank Bauer Number of locations PO Box 4974 Aspen, CO 81612 Area served North America Costa Rica Key people Christiaan Bailey-CEO & Frank Bauer-President | ||
Ocean Healing Group (OHG) is an international nonprofit organization that provides once in a lifetime, Costa Rica based, adaptive sports adventures and quality of life programs to children with disabilities.
Contents
History
Ocean Healing Group (OHG) was founded in 2007 by Frank Bauer and paralyzed professional surfer Christiaan Bailey.
JAWS program
Their flagship J.A.W.S. (Just Add Water Surfing) program is a Costa Rica-based, adaptive sports adventure program. The J.A.W.S. program is centered on physical rehabilitation through sports and activities such as surfing, snorkeling, zip-line tours, fishing, and quad riding tours and typically runs from 7 to 10 days quarterly throughout the year. The program is entirely subsidized for its participant campers and 100 percent of donations received go directly to the facilitation of programs. The JAWS program currently services disabled children with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, spinal cord injury, autism, Ataxia Telangiectasia and other conditions.
Advocacy
In addition to raising money for rehabilitative services for their campers and promoting other like-minded foundations, Ocean Healing Group also engages in public policy advocacy, Spinal Cord Injury peer support mentor-ship as well as being on the cutting edge, in research and development of adaptive surfing equipment. OHG also holds the distinction of being both the first and only international, adaptive surfing program in the world.
"Our mission is to help them to break down the personal and physical barriers, while building up their self confidence so they can expand the bounds of possibility for themselves...It's all about helping them to carve the "Dis" out of Disability! It's this mindset that makes up the core philosophy of the Ocean Healing Group!...Donations provide lodging, food and travel expenses for these disabled youngsters, but really so much more than that. They provide rehabilitation for the soul, a newfound sense of adventure and perhaps most importantly of all, the experience that when they push themselves to achieve, they can make anything possible!" -Christiaan Bailey (Dec,2009)
Leadership
Ocean Healing Group is led by a 7-person Board of Directors as well as a 10 person Advisory Committee. Corporate Officers are CEO/Executive Director Christiaan Bailey and Board President Frank Bauer.
Accreditation
Ocean Healing Group is certified by the Internal Revenue Service as a non-profit (501c3) organization.