Ophoenix – Public Benefit Corporation
Helping ordinary people deal with extraordinary medical challenges.
Meet the founders of Ophoenix.org, Helen Nichols and Ron Sidell and the board members Learn about their mission and Ophoenix projects.
Co-founders
Helen Nichols
CFO
Ron Sidell
CEO
Executive Director
Boards of Directors
Shirley Pinchev Sidell, Outreach Developer, Ophoenix, Public Benefit Corporation.
Shirley Pinchev Sidell, M.F.A.
Avid expert gardener Shirley Pinchev Sidell is called a visionary by those who know her. Combined with her Master of Fine Arts in Photography, Shirley’s passion is her garden and taking photographs of flowers and plants from garden and gardens throughout the world. She is the founder of www.biblicalgardens.com a website that was recognized as the first of its kind. Shirley is a popular speaker at Garden and Flower Shows, Garden Clubs and Senior Organizations.
Mission
Ophoenix is a charitable organization dedicated to assisting patients recovering from disabling medical conditions to leave the hospital if needed, and re-integrate into the community. Utilizing both new and traditional technologies, our goal is to enable these “patients” to become productive members of the community and realize their full potential as individuals.
Programs
The Patterson Network Project
Named after Richard Patterson, former Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s SCI Peer Support Coordinator, the Patterson Network Project aims to create a robust and Bay Area-wide forum for the SCI community. The site’s primary objective is to allow its users to contribute content and resources that positively affect everyone who is living with SCI. It can be found at https://patterson-net.org.
The Accesscat Server Project
The Accesscat server project is a joint project of Ophoenix and two other founders. The server provides web sites, email accounts, and other internet services to disabled individuals and to nonprofits that serve the disabled and other marginalized groups.
Accessible Gardens Web Site
The AccessibleGardens.org web site strives to be a unique, non-commercial website that connects people of all abilities with the tools they need to create an accessible garden of any size. The site contains instructions for laying out and building accessible gardens, including garden plans, videos, and links. Plus nearly everything else that might be needed by anybody to make their garden accessible for themselves and their visitors.
Community outreach, education, and publications
This program is oriented towards increasing community awareness in order to gain support to help further the successful reintegration into society of the disabled and chronically ill. Through publications and presentations, we educate the public about the value of including disabled individuals in their community activities. We also work to help the public understand the value of funding rehabilitation and medical support, from the hospital to home care. The Ophoenix directors believe that prevention is a key ingredient in reducing the root cause of a significant number of disabilities, and each year our goals include making presentations to corporations (and their employees), schools, and other gatherings of the general public.
Partnerships with other nonprofit organizations
Ophoenix works towards building mutually beneficial arrangements with other related public benefit, not-for-profit, and nonprofit organizations. Because of our small size, we are be able to act quickly as compared to larger organizations. There are many other nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area performing related work, and our intention is to partner with these groups rather than compete with them.