About Small Victories Foundation
Matt Ehlers and Derrick Wright
In 2014, Small Victories Foundation launched a local central Texas effort to promote physical and emotional healing for adult survivors of brain injuries by connecting them with arts experiences through professional instruction and performance/sharing opportunities.
Our organization has its roots in the personal experiences of one of our founders-Derrick Wright, who survived a 2007 Baghdad rocket attack after sustaining a penetrating head injury. Derrick and his family realized that his experience was like that of so many other TBI survivors: after the ICU, after the inpatient rehab, after the day care and outpatient therapy, and after the insurance companies have stopped funding recovery, there is still work to do.
People living with brain injuries may have lifelong symptoms that alter the course of their lives—cognitive impairment can make employment difficult or impossible, any additional physical disabilities likely affect mobility and make activities of daily living even more challenging. All of these things may also lead to social isolation. Because brain injury sets in motion a lifetime of recovery and adaptation, the Small Victories Foundation exists to help people with brain injuries continue to advance their emotional and physical healing by providing them with opportunities to learn artistic expression. 
Why artistic expression? Because it helps. Research demonstrates that learning and appreciating music and varieties of art helps form new pathways in the brain. These new pathways have effects far beyond the task at hand, and have positive impact on our lives in whole. We believe that this act of creation uplifts the soul, and facilitates a peaceful mind.
Small Victories Foundation has formed a network of art and music professionals in central Texas who are committed to helping adults with brain injuries learn, regardless of their physical or cognitive challenges. Our clients and their families choose what they would like to explore. We then provide funding for and connection to professional instruction for our clients to learn to play instruments, write, dance, sculpt, paint, weave, form, build–create works that they, their families, and their communities can appreciate.
Small Victories Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, tax ID 46-5300816.