2024 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 17-19, 2024 • Denver, CO
3/15/2022 | 12:35 PM - 1:00 PM | Supporting Deaf Adult Involvement Within the Home, School, and Community | Room 9
Supporting Deaf Adult Involvement Within the Home, School, and Community
In this session, we will discuss how we infuse a Deaf Mentor, or Deaf Adult Role Model, into programming within the home, school, and community. Our CHS Youth and Family Connections Program provides programming to support families of Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing Youth by using Deaf Adult Role Models in various roles and capacities. In the book, Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity, Andrew Solomon discusses the importance of youth connecting with others of the same identity, especially when a child is not of the same identity/culture as their parent. In this presentation, we will share our successful programming efforts, including the roles that a Deaf Mentor can assume to model Deaf Culture and competent language acquisition, how we establish a positive relationship between parent and mentor, and how parents learn to share their child with the Deaf community. Attendees will receive tools of implementation that they can bring back to their own state.
- The participant will be able to explain various roles of a Deaf Mentor and how a Deaf Mentor can model both Deaf Culture and Language.
- The participant will be able to identify opportunities to use Deaf Adult Role Models to establish positive relationships between parents and Deaf Mentors.
- The participant will be able to describe how a Deaf Mentor can be a liaison between hearing families and the Deaf Community, thereby strengthening the child and family's ability to participate in both worlds.
Presentation:
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Presenters/Authors
Karen Aguilar
(Co-Presenter), Chicago Hearing Society, KAguilar@anixter.org;
Karen Aguilar is the VP of Communication Access at the Chicago Hearing Society, a division of Anixter Center, that provides social services and advocacy, youth programing and mentoring, a hearing health clinic and interpreter referral service throughout Illinois. CHS houses the Youth and Family Connections Program and Deaf Mentor Program. Ms. Aguilar's past work includes creating a center based early intervention program for families and providing developmental therapy, service coordination and family support. Ms. Aguilar has a Masters of Jurisprudence in Health Law from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and has trained the legal community on the rights of persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, and educated the Deaf Community about their rights under state and federal laws. Ms. Aguilar has been signing since childhood and is a nationally-certified state-licensed sign language interpreter.
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Michelle Mendiola
(Co-Presenter), Chicago Hearing Society, mmendiola@anixter.org;
Michelle Mendiola is a Deaf adult and is married to Jason McKinnie with three daughters, including Jayla and Jaede who are both hard of hearing. She is the Director of the Community Outreach & Advocacy at the Chicago Hearing Society, a division of Anixter Center. Michelle oversees the Youth Program, Adult Role Models in Education of the Deaf (A.R.M.E.D.), and a statewide Deaf Mentor Program. Michelle's other job duties include providing counseling, crisis intervention,?advocacy, information & referral to appropriate community resources for services, coordinating income tax assistance program and overseeing the Illinois Telecommunication Access Corporation (ITAC) Program and also Youth and Family Connections. Michelle has given numerous trainings and presentations on different Deaf-related topics. Michelle is personally and professionally active in the Deaf Community.
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Karla Giese
(Primary Presenter), karlag@choicesforparents.org;
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