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10/09/2015  |   3:00 PM - 4:15 PM   |  SAC Auditorium

U.S./Russian Partnership: Supporting Families with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children

In July 2014, The United States-Russia Peer to Peer Program awarded a grant to Hands & Voices (H&V) administered through the U.S. Embassy. This grant, written in partnership with the St. Petersburg Early Intervention Institute (EII), was one of 26 selected out of 240 applicants. The power of the parent-to-parent connection even across languages and cultures is truly amazing. This presentation will highlight the outcomes of the project which include providing strategies to the parents of children who are deaf and hard of hearing as well as the professionals who support them; the sharing and understanding of cultural perspectives; and the distribution of recommended practices in early intervention and parent-to-parent support, with the aim of improving services and child outcomes. Information will be shared about a study visit to the U.S. by the four parents and four professionals from Russia including an opportunity to attend the Hands & Voices Leadership Conference in Savannah, Georgia in September 2014. Five participants from the U.S. then traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia to attend and present at the Communication, Sound, and Light conference in October of 2014 at the Pavlov Institute of Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences. A parent workshop was held in St. Petersburg with over 35 parents attending. Information about utilizing current web-based technology and the successes and challenges of this application for parent to parent support across the world will be addressed. Lessons learned, along with practical applications that other countries/projects may consider utilizing will be shared.

• Participants will be able to identify parent to parent support strategies for international connections between parents.
• Participants will be able to appraise technology options for interactions between countries and understand necessary accessibility features.

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Janet DesGeorges (POC,Primary Presenter), Hands & Voices, janet@handsandvoices.org;
Janet DesGeorges lives in Boulder, Colorado and is mom to Sara, who is D/HH. She is a co-founder of Hands & Voices, serving as the Executive Director since September 2011. Janet has presented to groups worldwide about the experiences of families as they journey through life with a child with deafness. Ms. DesGeorges is the author on the chapter for Family Support in the NCHAM e-Book, the co-author of the book Educational Advocacy for Students who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and many other publications. Ms. DesGeorges received a program certificate from the MCH Public Health Leadership Institute in 2011 at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. Her areas of interest include Leadership Development for parents; Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Systems; Parent/Professional partnerships in Quality Improvement processes and international parent-to-parent support.