Call To Action
Community Health Worker Training Opportunity
Deaf Parents
Be Visible Project are in search fo Deaf parents to submit brief videos of themselves giving advice on raising Deaf young children, how to address educational and social issues. Send them to secretary@deafga.org. The collected videos will be viewed and if approved, placed on new GAD Youtube site (coming soon). This project runs from September 29th to October 25.
Explore Georgia
Explore Georgia (the state tourism office) is seeking information about attractions and activities in Georgia that are Deaf-friendly, to put into an article. The article will appear in the 2023 travel guide. Email your suggestions (name of place or activity, and why you think it is Deaf-friendly) to Secretary@deafga.org by September 17th.
Literacy Crisis
Hello everyone, my name is DeAnna Swope and I’m GAD (GA Association of the Deaf) president. I’m a brown-skinned late 30s woman, with wraparound cornrow locs, wearing a burnt orange top and wearing diamond studs sitting behind the white wall. I would like to share the news with you regarding the literary crisis. My officers and I recently learned from community members about the literary crisis that has impacted our Deaf youth from 6 to 13. They were reading below their age/grade level and requested us to send GA Commission of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing a letter demanding two actions: 1) increase funding for Deaf Mentors program to make it possible that each family can receive more frequent visits from the Deaf mentorship services (instead of two per month) and; 2) to demand the commission to locate funding through tutoring and peer support to address current students’ literacy needs. I submitted the letter of support to GACDHH and we received a response that they are interested in meeting with us to discuss this further. Once we have the meeting in September, I’ll keep you posted on our latest update on improving the quality of education for deaf children in Georgia.
For now, what we are asking from you, GAD members, is to email me if you are interested in becoming a mentor or tutor by September 5th. I need your name, text number, and the county you live in. That is all. That way, that information will help us identify potential names to add for Deaf Mentors program’s consideration.
Thanks for watching.
Seeking volunteers for translations
GAD is seeking volunteers to translate English print of GAD website contents to ASL videos. Contact Secretary@deafga.org if interested.
Deaf Santa Clauses
VR Status Report 9-2-2022
Greeting GAD members. This is Scott Cohen, your vice president. Ma’am president, DeAnna Swope, and I met with Russell Fleming, a state coordinator for deaf service in the Georgia Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. We discussed our members’ concerns about vocational rehabilitation services that are declining. Russell explained what is happening with the vocational rehabilitation that is changing. Vocational rehabilitation experienced a large number of staff departing due to retirements and career changes, leaving the department short-staffed. They created a new position for entry-level counselors that have bachelor’s degrees. The vocational rehabilitation will train the new counselors to work with different groups of people that the vocational rehabilitation serves. They hired over 25 new counselors last month and will hire 70 more. However, these counselors are not specialized in working with deaf clients as the vocational rehabilitation will train them. The vocational rehabilitation revised its district maps and now has 8: Northeast Georgia, Northwest Georgia, Metro Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, South in Valdosta, and one more. Currently, 3 districts have counselors for deaf clients: Brian Fleming in Augusta, Durkhy Haque in Atlanta, and Ronnie Mae Tyson in Valdosta. Five districts need counselors for deaf clients. If you know anyone who knows ASL, has a college degree and is looking for a job, please encourage them to apply for vocational rehabilitation.
What we need from you is to contact your vocational rehabilitation and open a case if you need service to help with work, training, or equipment need for the job. The higher number of deaf clients in their system will let the vocational rehabilitation know that we need their services and we need high-quality service. The number of deaf clients is declining to lead to less service from vocational rehabilitation. We need to grow the number to get more services from vocational rehabilitation. Also, vocational rehabilitation focuses on young people around high school age who are transitioning into the workplace after finishing high school. So more deaf people open cases with vocational rehabilitation will allow GAD to work with vocational rehabilitation to advocate for your needs.
Thank you, Gadly yours!
DAQL seeks your input!
Deaf Access to Quality Life (DAQL) was founded to empower the Deaf community in Georgia to address the challenges faced by a lack of culturally and linguistically competent mental health services for DHH people.
We need your input to know what the deaf community needs – fill out this important survey (the Needs Assessment). You CAN complete it for other people who need services but cannot do it by themselves due to severe mental illness or developmental disabilities. We need at least 200 responses to be able to apply for grants to establish and offer services