About Us

Prior to the creation of the United Brachial Plexus Network (UBPN), all of the support which UBPN now provides was provided by individuals and smaller groups. The original social network for those associated with brachial plexus injuries (at that more commonly known as Erb’s Palsy) was the EPIRG (Erb’s Palsy Information Resource Group) message board. The EPIRG message board was created, managed and run by the parents of a child with a birth injury. There was also a magazine, Outreach, which was edited, printed and distributed by a single mom who had a son with a birth injury. She asked only for donations to offset printing costs. And individually, in towns around the country, people set up “picnics” for families to get together, offer support and sometimes have evaluations by brachial plexus injury specialists.

In 1999, UBPN founding President Cathy Kanter hosted a meeting with a handful of others who had been actively involved with the community to discuss forming an organization which brought together each of these parts under a single umbrella. Each person at that meeting had a personal connection to brachial plexus injuries; either as the parent of an injured child or an adult with a birth injury. The group was initially formed to be international in scope and only to be involved with birth injuries. Shortly after the group was founded, a young adult with a traumatic injury became involved with UBPN and the decision was made to expand and include all people with brachial plexus injuries, regardless of the origin of the injury. In addition, we have narrowed our international scope somewhat, as groups similar to ours began forming in a number of countries in Europe and Great Britain. We do still welcome those who do not have a more local group available to them.

We successfully adopted all of the disparate parts of the brachial plexus injury support network. EPIRG’s website was donated to UBPN, and is now part of our ubpn.org website and our Facebook page. Anyone who is interested in BPI, has a question, or is looking to “talk” to other people within our community can go to the UBPN Facebook page, Twitter, or Instagram.

Outreach continued as a print magazine for a number of years before transitioning to virtual magazine. The advent of the internet allowed us to reduce our cost, while still giving the members of our community an additional level of support. Some of the old articles are still available online, and we will add more as we can source them.

The “picnics” that individuals had been setting up became ubpnCamp. The camps are a source of great pride for UBPN as they have grown in size and breadth. The camp is held every other year and in various locations across the United States.