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PHILANTHROPY NEWS DIGEST
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| Name: | Hear Me Foundation |
| Founded: | 1999 |
| Executive Director: | Adrienne G. Lyons |
| Address: | P.O. Box 925097 Houston, Texas 77292-5097 |
| Phone: | 713.688-ORAL (6725) |
| E-mail: | Hear99@aol.com |
| URLs: | http://www.hearmefoundation.org/ |
| Mission: | To promote positive life experiences via camp activities and year-round event sponsorships directed primarily for oral deaf and hard of hearing children, their siblings, and their families. Hear Me's intent is to promote activities and education for these children and their families that will instill independence and confidence while offering unlimited opportunities for personal fulfillment. |
| Background: | The Hear Me Foundation was established by Tamala McKenzie-Kring out of her home after Tamala's three-year-old daughter was diagnosed with degenerative hearing loss. It was Tamala's desire to help oral deaf and hard of hearing children and their families.
The idea behind the Hear Me Foundation began with a camp for children (including siblings) who chose or seek to educate their deaf or hard of hearing child to be oral. Buoyed by the support of other families and professionals, Camp Hear Me became a reality on October 29, 1999, in Burton, Texas. The organization provides parents with a place to start and the tools to help their children, while addressing the needs of siblings and families as a whole. Currently, the Hear Me Foundation operates on a small budget (less than $25,000 annually). Nevertheless, it has provided more than 100 families with the resources to learn specific skills that are necessary to monitor their child's developmental and psychological needs, listening skills, speech, language, and socialization. In addition, parents who contact the organization receive resources that enable the family to review the facts about their deaf or hard of hearing child and their choices in raising their child. The organization also provides the family with a support system and information about national and local deaf and hard of hearing organizations, as well as medical and educational professionals. |
| Current Programs: | Hear Me's current programs and projects include presentations to community and medical leaders and the dissemination of information to families raising deaf or hard of hearing children via local news, radio, and periodicals. |
| Web Site: | The Hear Me Foundation Web site (www.hearmefoundation.org) provides information about the organization's services, camp, family and professional registration, and newsletter, as well as related links to other organizations and resources for the deaf or hard of hearing. |
| Recent Successes: | To date, the organization has been featured on Access Houston's morning program, the Debra Duncan Show, Houston's Spirit Salute, and the Sam Cress Show on Fort Bend Cable's You and Your Health Channel. Additionally, articles about the foundation have appeared in the Herald Coaster, the Pecan Grove Monthly, Lifestyles Magazine, and the Fort Bend school newspaper.
Camp Hear Me's inaugural weekend in October offered two panel discussions, a luncheon guest speaker, and exhibits by the Houston Ear Research Foundation, the Cochlear Corporation, the Med-El Corporation, Phonic Ear (personal and classroom soundfield systems), the Center for Hearing and Speech, Houston's Self Help Group for the Hard of Hearing, the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Hearing Health Magazine, and the Texas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The organization has initiated publication of two quarterly newsletters and recently sponsored a Rodeo Day at the Houston Live Stock Show and Rodeo. |
| Funding Needs: | Thus far, Hear Me has relied solely on volunteers, family/professional registration fees, and private donations. The organization is always on the lookout for committed volunteers as well as funding to support its operations, camp scholarships, research, mentoring program, and year-round extracurricular activities. The organization welcomes donations of items such as computer software, arts and crafts supplies, hearing aids and assistive listening devices, dress-up clothes, sleeping bags, pillows, and toiletries.
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Every week, the NPO Spotlight in Philanthropy News Digest highlights the activities of a nonprofit organization; periodically, we shift the focus to an NGO in a country other than the U.S. Organizations are selected, using a range of criteria, to ensure the broadest possible representation of the nonprofit sector, both in the U.S. and abroad.
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