Strong Infrastructure Components for Brain Injury (BI): State Self-Assessment Tool & Implementation Guide

Building a strong state infrastructure takes time, effort, and planning from many individuals and organizations. There are several key components necessary to create a comprehensive state system of services, partners, funding, and policy. Infrastructure building is a process and requires routine assessment, regardless of the level achieved. This tool, Strong Infrastructure Components for Brain Injury (BI): State Self-Assessment Tool, produced by ACL's Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Technical Assistance and Resource Center (TARC) in 2023, was created to assist BI partners and collaborators in determining which level best describes their state’s progress, and to give some guidance to what a more comprehensive system could include. It is designed to be a guide, and states should consider re-assessing routinely, or at various points to assist in state planning efforts, such as conducting a new needs assessment, developing, or updating a state plan, or applying for a grant opportunity.

The accompanying implementation guide, Maximizing Use of the State Self-Assessment Tool: Strong Infrastructure Components for Brain Injury (BI), developed in 2025, provides a structured framework to help you apply the tool across programs, policies, systems, and recommendations, and is designed to increase effective utilization of the self-assessment tool.