www.dbcusa.org

Last Thursday, October 16th, the Deaf Bilingual Coalition had a historic roundtable meeting which involved 15 leaders of different organizations for three hours providing valuable input about what direction the Deaf community should focus on.

Laurene Simms, Beth Benedict, Jay Innes, Steve Nover, Barbara Raimondo, Edward Bosso, Jodee Crace and others gave wonderful presentations about how the DBC and other organizations such as ASDC, CEASD, NAD, CPSO of Gallaudet and others can focus on developing training programs, including programs promoting the concept of Deaf mentorship, as well as other  programs that bring more awareness to various issues by, for example, having booths at different conferences or holding conventions in language acquisition and cognitive development skills for all babies "from the start."

The results of this meeting was a consensus that there should be a focus on three projects, which are:

1. Gallaudet CPSO (College of Professional Studies and Outreach) will work on setting up Deaf Mentorship classes to train people to train others. Jay J. Innes, Interim Dean of CPSO, will work with three others on the committee to implement this project by Summer of 2009.
2. The ASDC (American Society for Deaf Children) and the DBC (Deaf Bilingual Coalition) have made plans to have booths at the Dallas EHDI Convention to help spread awareness about bilingualism for Deaf babies and children at schools.
3. Gallaudet Early Childhood Education Associate Professor Laurene Simms, Ph.D., will work on a project to develop PR materials to be included in information packets that will be handed out to any interested person, which give information about how to educate Deaf babies from newborns through age 8.

We think that Deaf mentorship training will make the biggest difference on how we can help parents and families on the aspect of Deaf babies and children. The vast majority of parents have "complained" that they have the desire to meet Deaf people but they are unable to find any.

The Deaf Bilingual Coalition and the American Society for Deaf Children need help to raise money for travel expenses, booth fees, etc., and would appreciate any help with donations.

You can contribute at dbcusa.org by clicking on "Support DBC" - or also at deafchildren.org (American Society for Deaf Children) - and click on "Donate."

The Deaf Bilingual Coalition will host a big fundraising event on November 8th at Hank and Bunny Klopping's home. For more information, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Let's help all Deaf babies and children in schools to reach their maximum potential through language and education to enable them to have a lifetime of prosperity.