President's report. december 2023
Dear Friends,
I’m pleased to submit this Report about the current work of Partners in Hearing in this our 6th year of operations.
We’ve expanded our Mission to include not only children who are deaf and those with hearing aids and cochlear implants. These children and their families face the same issues and we are recognizing those needs in our grantmaking process. I am proud of our accomplishments and achievements of our wonderful Board, as well as the support of all of you, our wonderful donors.
Our Accomplishments. We presently support three (with a fourth on the way) very promising programs with cash grants to highly prestigious NY based institutions:
1. At Westchester Medical Center’s Cochlear Implant Center. Our current effort at WMC involves educational advocacy through a learning series for parents and professionals. The goal of this program is to empower families and professionals by providing the information and knowledge of what a child with a cochlear implant needs within their academic setting, to facilitate optimal academic success for the children. In the past, we supported a tele therapy program at WMC for children who are not able to visit a therapist in person. That program continues.
2. Our grant in support of the Bridging the Gap program at Clarke School for Hearing and Speech continues. It has been a real success in the lives of children who are “late” identified as being deaf. “Late” in this context means after age 3. We've learned that this can happen for a variety of reasons - eg, a misdiagnosis. A gap is also created due to the expiration of Early Intervention Programs’ “early” generally ends at age 3. So late discovery means that the child experiences delays in achieving speech and language milestones. We help bridge the language gap by supporting parent based therapy with Speech and Language Pathologists and/or Teachers of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
3. Our newest grant recipient is St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf. “SFDS” is a non-public, state supported school for students from birth through 8th grade who are deaf. The school is located in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. SFDS serves students who are Deaf, DeafBlind, Functionally Deaf and Deaf with Additional/Multiple Disabilities (including Deaf with Autism and Deaf with Intellectual Disabilities). The goal of our grant is to enhance the communication tools of students using Listening and Spoken Language ("LSL") as their primary communication language and mode for both students with and without implants. The foregoing has led to development of and our support of a Parent Training Program that includes:
• Family coaching sessions to teach strategies to use at home
• Interpreters for non-English speaking families to have access to learning listening strategies to use at home with their child
• Potential options for in person or virtual parent training
The Parent Training Program includes SFDS faculty and consultants as well as the purchase of materials. We have high hopes for this one and look for it to be a model for other schools that want to enhance listening and spoken language skills.
4. We are looking into a new program, at NY Eye and Ear Infirmary, that would involve translating written materials into the native languages of the children that NYEE serves in Lower Manhattan.
Our Board Expansion. We’ve made two wonderful additions to our Board this year:
Dr. Brian Nicholas is certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology and spearheads the cochlear implantation program at White Plains (NY) Hospital. Previously he practiced at Upstate Medical University and the Syracuse NY VA Medical Center (as Chief, Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery), where he successfully made cochlear implantation a reality for those who are profoundly deaf.
Emma Haith holds a NYS Speech and Language Pathology Certificate and is a Teacher of Students with Speech and Language Disabilities (TSSLD). She serves as a Speech Language Pathologist within the Pelham NY School District.
With this added talent to an our already devoted and dedicated Board, we are well positioned to fulfill or Mission.
Fundraising. On the fundraising side, we’re recognized as a credible, innovative and effective partner to institutions in not only identifying need but in effectively identifying the solution and being able to distribute resources. With the generous support of our donors, we can continue to do that.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael G. Tannenbaum,
President, 2023