Special Programs and Projects

FRESNO:

Project: C.A.R.E - Cancer Awareness Recovery Awareness for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Our CARE program funded by Susan G. Komen is back! Stephanie Flerchinger and Becky Edens-Paul are here again for a second-year. The goal of this grant is to educate many Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals the importance of Early Detection! Early Detection is the best weapon to catch Breast Cancer at an early stage. Breast Cancer can happen to anyone regardless of their gender, age, and socioeconomic status. Yes, it means men can get it too! This year DHHSC will have a variety of workshops that includes a movie night, mammogram tour, Race for the Cure, Mother/Daughter Tea party, and many more. Last year the 2009 "Race for the Cure" held their first Deaf Team here at Fresno Central Valley. Once again, we will have a second-year Deaf Relay team. If you are interested, please contact the Fresno Headquarters at DHHSC to be a part of the team. It will be on Saturday, October 23rd. For more details please contact the front desk at (559) 225-3323 or email Stephanief (at) dhhsc.org or Beckyep (at) dhhsc.org to be on the team.

MERCED OUTREACH:

Project: L.E.A.D THE WAY TO SUCCESS

Learning signs, Empowering parents, & Advocating for Deaf and hard of hearing children. Funded by First 5 Merced County, this program offer FREE American Sign Language (ASL) classes, Monthly Storytelling, and Early Intervention / Counseling for family with child(ren) with any degree of hearing loss. This program is FREE and for anyone in the family who has a child between the ages of 0-5, Pregnant women included! Grandparents, relatives are encouraged to attend as well, too! For more information about our next sessions, please contact AngelicaM (at) DHHSC.org.

Project: Deaf and Hard of Hearing Access to Safety and Health (D.A.S.H.)

United Way of Merced County funds D.A.S.H. This program is for Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals, of all ages, in Merced County. The program focuses on providing education to the community through workshops, events, and peer counseling for FREE. We have resources for the community to use to monitor their health and establish goals to promote a more healthy lifestyle. We also aim to educate Merced County as a whole about the unique health concerns about Deaf and hard of hearing population, and how other agencies can better serve their needs. For more information, contact Beth Lilley at BethL (at) DHHSC.org.

CENTRAL COAST OUTREACH:

Project: Literacy, Empowerment, and Advocacy Program (L.E.A.P)

LEAP is funded by Harden Foundation and additional generous private donations. This is a program for Deaf and Hard of Hearing children and their families in Monterey County. Our goal is to provide Deaf and Hard of Hearing children (ages 0-18) and their families with resources that will help them to develop communication and with child’s literacy skills.

We offer many different services for L.E.A.P: workshops, events, American Sign Language (ASL) Classes, ASL Storytelling, Early Intervention Services, and Advocacy. We offer a FREE six weeks sign language instruction for Deaf and Hard of Hearing children and their families and free ASL Storytelling once a month (2nd Saturday of each month from 2 to 4 PM) at Marina Library with a voice interpreter provided.

A large collection of Shared Reading Project Book Bags from Gallaudet University is available for parents to borrow and and bring home to read to their children with sign language. We offer one-on-one tutoring for using the Book Bags before parents take it home. We have a whole collection of Signing Time DVDs available for watching. We also offer Early Intervention/Advocacy services. If you have any questions regarding the L.E.A.P program, please contact Nicole Bruno via email at Nicoleb (at) dhhsc.org or our Central Coast Office at 831-753-6540.

SOUTH VALLEY OUTREACH:

Project: DeafWrite

Improve your English reading and writing skills! Space is limited.

The classes are FREE!

OPTION 1: DeafWrite Beginner's class: Do you want to improve your English skills? Do you want reading and writing lessons? Do you get mail that you don't understand?

Contact Jesse Lewis via e-mail at: Jessel (at) dhhsc.org today to ask about DeafWrite Beginner's class. He can explain more details to you in person or through VP about the classes.

OPTION 2: DeafWrite Intermediate class: Do you want to take your English skills to the next level? Would you like to increase your vocabulary and learn phrases hearing people use? Are you interested in becoming more comfortable with English and communicating with hearing people?

Contact Jesse Lewis by e-mail at: Jessel (at) dhhsc.org today to ask about DeafWrite Intermediate class.

These classes are FREE. They will be in the South Valley Outreach office in Visalia: 3200 S. Fairway Street, Suite G, Visalia, CA 93277

WHY TAKE A CLASS? -To have better communication with hearing people -To be more comfortable reading your mail -To feel more confident in job interviews -So that you can enjoy watching captioned movies/television, Learn to read books for fun, Write about your life and keep for notes for memories ….And many more reasons to improve your reading and/or writing skills!