1. “Hearing Me” Proposal Narrative for the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation, Inc.
Proposal Information
Request Submission Date:
Proposal Title:
The “Hearing Me” Program: Changing the Lives of Central Florida Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing
(DHH) Children and their Families.
Brief one sentence summary of your proposed request:
While in the past decade volunteer efforts have enabled the “Hearing Me” program to deliver
educational and psychosocial services to deaf/hard-of-hearing children and their families, yet
with the proposed program coordinator developing new innovative programming, the lives of
DHH children would further be enhanced by providing parents the support of professional
knowledge and skills, training and leadership, and growth and management of family literacy
initiatives.
Request Amount: $50,000 for one year
Complete statement explaining why the grant is needed as well as how the funding will
be used:
“Over the next decade 1.9 billion children will be born and many with the most common birth
defect--а hearing impairment. Also in that next ten years 76 million children will be born deaf or
hard of hearing" (Let Them Hear Foundation). The American Speech-Language-Hearing
Association (ASHA) acknowledges wide documentation that hearing loss leads to many types of
communication delays in areas including academic readiness, receptive and expressive
language, and social relationships. Critical community concern in these areas has changed
policy at many governmental levels. According to Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education,
disabled infants and toddlers must have access to high-quality services to prepare for preschool
and kindergarten. This early intervention bridge is critical for DHH infants and toddlers because
the gap between communication skills of children with normal hearing and DHH children quickly
widens with age.
“Hearing Me” helps families realize that there is no limit to their child’s success, if they look at
deafness as simply a part of their own uniqueness rather than as an impairment. Assisting
parents effectively delivers early intervention to Central Florida’s DHH children prior to their
transition to preschool. The further development and expansion of the program with the
leadership of a “Hearing Me” program coordinator focuses on the following critical need areas:
1. Sign language understanding and training
2. Mentoring for parents and volunteers
3. Services, equipment, information on cochlear implants and other assistitive
technologies, and other resources.
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2. Moving forward, a program coordinator with experience in early childhood education would
foster program development enhancing the lives of DHH families by providing knowledge, skills,
leadership, as well as, growth and management of family literacy initiatives. A program
coordinator for the program should be a special education teacher with the ability to develop
and expand programs, facilitate child-parent communication, and overcome barriers in
education for DHH children ages 0-3. With awareness of educational and psychosocial needs
concerning the child-parent relationship, an empathetic and passionate coordinator would help
parents become proactive participants in the developmental growth of their children.
The grant funds will be paid in the form of a bi-weekly salary (in arrears) to the program
coordinator provided s/he meets objectives and tasks supporting the goals articulated. The
quantifiable objectives and the program coordinator's specific tasks will be reviewed on a
quarterly basis with adjustments and improvements made as needed.
Explanation of how the request promotes the Foundation’s mission:
For nearly four decades, the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation has advocated for the needs of
children, especially helping them overcome the challenges of disabilities. Your foundation’s
mission to “help people help themselves to better their lives” by providing funding to nonprofits
matches the goal of our program, "Hearing Me." Since Mrs. Bush had a keen personal interest
in children, she committed her time and charity assisting ‘handicapped’ children and supporting
educational institutions. Driven by her deep desire, she gave the Central Florida community
inspiration for others to “strengthen their capacity to serve the public interest.” Above all, Mrs.
Bush helped individuals to overcome adversity and reach their potential. “Hearing Me”
collaborates with parents of deaf/hard of hearing infants and toddlers so their children overcome
adversity and reach their potential. In our work, we have found that parents’ understanding of
“access to essential educational and support services” will help DHH children reach for the stars
to become successful, productive members in our world.
“Hearing Me” matches the Edyth Bush Foundation’s goals and priorities to create innovative
civic solutions helping people help themselves and furthers the tradition of Mrs. Bush’s laudable
timeless philanthropy. Much like Edyth Bush, Tanya Williams, the founder of the innovative
"Hearing Me" program, has had the desire and generosity to understand and support the
disabled and underprivileged in our community. The "Hearing Me" program seeks funding to
support an experienced deaf/hard of hearing program coordinator for one year to develop family
initiatives to overcome the numerous communication challenges experienced by DHH infants
and toddlers.
List of up to 4 quantifiable goals for the project:
The following four goals of the “Hearing Me” program include quantifiable objectives and tasks
to be accomplished when a program coordinator is brought on board to expand the current
volunteer-driven program. The specific tasks support the specific objectives leading to the
measurable outcomes; the objectives lead to fulfilling the general annual goals. The goals will
meet social and technological sustainability through collaboration and communication.
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3. Goal 1: Build three (3) new overarching programs at various levels of need (subprograms:
beginning, middle, advanced): Program 1: ASL training, Program 2: Family reading literacy
initiatives, Program 3: Mentoring (counseling and support) for 15 DHH families for over the
course of a year, in order to “help people help themselves.”
Objective 1: Assess the current "Hearing Me" programming and advise the
administration where specific innovations will be beneficial.
Objective 2: Advertise the "Hearing Me" program to interested DHH families in Central
Florida (4 counties).
Task 1: Create a monthly e-newsletter for information and to announce meetings
and training classes.
Task 2: Build a contact list of interested DHH families from e-newsletter mailing
list requests and other information gathering methods.
Goal 2: Provide sign language training and to enhance reading readiness for 15 families of
DHH children. The program coordinator trains 15 new DHH parents to learn about their
children's disability and sign language communication needs, with the aspiration that ultimately
each will become a self-directed learning parent.
Objective 1: Inform parents about American Sign Language (ASL) for beginners, middle
users, and advanced infant-toddler levels by creating a beginners level, middle level,
and advanced level tutoring program involving parents and volunteers in organization
and planning.
Objective 2: Facilitate the joy of reading through storytelling and reading readiness
activities between parent and child.
Task 1: Create a storytelling group applying new knowledge of signing with the
ASL program.
Task 2: Hold regular trainer/parent/child group storytelling sessions applying new
knowledge of signing with the ASL program.
Task 3: Invite local library storyteller(s) to help with storytelling session, either by
being a guest storyteller, or by providing helpful ideas and materials.
Goal 3: Create collaborative mentoring relationships (support and counseling) between at least
10 families of newly diagnosed DHH children and 10 families whose DHH children have already
been a part of "Hearing Me."
Objective 1: Facilitate social interaction between DHH child and parent/siblings.
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4. Task 1: Learn how to create think/pair/share group collaborations.
Task 2: Discuss collaboration between parents and volunteers to reflect on sign
language program learning experiences.
Objective 2: Conduct 10 meetings per year with parents organizing, planning, and
leading at least four per year.
Task 1: Organize a family picnic or potluck lunch/supper between child, parent,
and other family members to utilize signing only (language immersion).
Task 2: Plan and organize semi-monthly support group empowerment exercises.
Goal 4: Train parents (15) of newly diagnosed DHH children in the program beginning the
process of becoming self-aware educational practitioners exploring available services,
equipment, and resources on cochlear implants and other assistitive technologies. This goal
meets our desire for introducing technological sustainability.
Objective 1: Establish informational literacy outreach for parents' developing
knowledge.
Objective 2: Research current assistitive technology led by parent and including child
and other family members.
Explanation of why our organization cannot afford the project without funding:
Due to the negligible supply of DHH family program initiatives in Central Florida with services
benefiting the disabled hearing child and their families and the research-forecast of an
increased number of DHH infants, the “Hearing Me” program can no longer keep up with the
larger demand for education and social services for this target population without a program
coordinator to move “Hearing Me” forward. According to Dr. Marilyn Sass-Lehrer, Co-Director of
the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Infants, Toddlers, and their Families Interdisciplinary Graduate
Certificate Program of the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center at Gallaudet University
in Washington, D.C., "Only a few years ago, early identification for all children with a hearing
loss was still a dream. Now the number of families with infants seeking early intervention
services has increased dramatically, creating a demand for the programs that are available."
Over the past ten years, community volunteers have staffed the “Hearing Me” program.
However, in order to serve the needs of the expanding DHH population, we can no longer afford
the lack of a highly educated, trained, and experienced program coordinator to assist
developing innovative programming for the families of infants and toddlers with hearing deficits
and difficulties. A program coordinator would provide the administrative skills such as planning,
organization, and time management in order to enable volunteers to dedicate their time directly
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5. to the families. This program coordinator will have experience and abilities that most volunteers
simply do not have. Additionally, a program coordinator would provide leadership, role modeling,
and mentoring to utilize volunteers’ passion and commitment more effectively.
Proposal Start Date: January 1, 2013
Proposal End Date: December 31, 2013
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6. to the families. This program coordinator will have experience and abilities that most volunteers
simply do not have. Additionally, a program coordinator would provide leadership, role modeling,
and mentoring to utilize volunteers’ passion and commitment more effectively.
Proposal Start Date: January 1, 2013
Proposal End Date: December 31, 2013
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