Freedom House President Beverly D. Thompson

Beverly is a co-founder and President of Freedom House. She has an extensive career in counseling and health care. She has a Masters Degree in Marriage and Family Counseling and for the past fifteen years, has been involved with counseling individuals and families and supervising programs for the mentally disabled.

She currently supervises a staff of five at an adult health care program with over two hundred participants.

Beverly has extensive experience related to Traumatic Brain Injury.

Ten years ago her daughter suffered an accident while at the beach and went into respiratory arrest which left her with severe brain damage. Her physical appearance is such that one would not think there is anything wrong with her. However, when you try to carry on a conversation with her, she is unable to retrieve old information or remember a recent conversation. If you ask her a question concerning her past, she is able to retrieve the information. She cannot be left alone as she will leave wherever she is in search of her mother or anything familiar from her past.

For three years Beverly looked for a permanent facility to place her daughter in. She visited or contacted most of the facilities in San Diego but found they were either “private pay” which she cannot afford or had no other funding source. The only place she found that would take her was a skilled nursing facility in Santa Cruz, CA where she lived for two years, until she moved back home.

Knowing there were no homes for the ABI (Acquired Brain Injury) population, she wrote an article about her experience and with the outpouring of response, decided she must do something to change this for herself and all of those in the same position. When Donna Lewis read the article she called Beverly and they soon realized they were both looking for the same solution. After several meetings they decided to form a nonprofit entity and FREEDOM HOUSE was born.