Ageless Passions by Karen Putz

Tag: hands & voices

  • Out of the Comfort Zone at the Hands & Voices Leadership Conference

    The 10th Annual Hands & Voices Leadership Conference took place this week in Madison, Wisconsin.  The topic of the conference: Out of the Comfort Zone.  In the ten years I’ve been with Hands & Voices, I’ve had to step out of the comfort zone time and time again. In the process, I’ve grown in so many different ways. It is cool to see that same transition happening with the chapter leaders and parents over the years.

    A little over ten years ago when I first joined Hands & Voices, the leaders all fit around a single conference table.  I started the fourth chapter of Hands & Voices. I wasn’t sure how in the world we would create a 501c3 with no funds to begin with, but the Lions Club of Batavia and Barb Sims from the Special Education department in Illinois pitched in to give us start up funding.  I remained President for four years, and then Beth Donofrio took over. Today, Andrea Marwah is currently running the chapter.

    And today, Hands & Voices is expanding worldwide.  There is a strong need for a parent-driven organization which provides support for families with deaf and hard of hearing children– no family, no child, should travel the journey alone.

    As I watched Andrea  speak on the topic of Advocacy during her plenary, I thought back to the first time our paths crossed. I served as a Deaf Mentor for their family. One of the resources I often share with families is a book, “From Emotions to Advocacy” by Wrightslaw and I brought the book with me during one of the visits. Andrea, being the tenacious mom she is, took notes of everything. She followed up in getting the book and learning everything she could about education law.  Today, she teaches classes on special education law and advocacy. She has taken Illinois Hands & Voices to a whole new level with her leadership. I am so inspired by her leadership and her journey as a parent. She embodies the Hands & Voices philosophy on every level.

    I’ve been with Hands & Voices for over ten years now and my commitment and passion are stronger than ever.  There was a time I lost my passion and lost my way, but one day, I sat down and figured out my “why” of doing what I do. At the conference, a mom came up to me and introduced herself. As we chatted, she mentioned I had helped her seven years ago. When she walked away, I realized the value in what we do at Hands & Voices– we just never know who we help or how we inspire or impact families. This is why we continue to reach out and travel the journey with other families–this is our passion, this is our “why” of what we do every day at Hands & Voices.

    “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”

    Albert Schweitzer

  • Neutral is a Shade of Color, Not an Organization

    Hands & Voices gathering

    Eons and eons ago, Leeanne Seaver, the then Director of Hands & Voices issued me a challenge: start up the Illinois chapter of Hands & Voices.

    I hesitated. I had just completed four years with the team from West Suburban Association of the Deaf, growing it from a tiny deaf club with 44 members into a 501c3 non-profit– one of the few which still exist today.  I had three little kids two years apart in age and I worked part-time at the local community college. Did I really want to take on the challenge of starting another non-profit, this time from scratch?

    I didn’t hesitate for long, and here’s why: because every single day, I believe in the mission and the purpose of Hands & Voices:

    Hands & Voices is dedicated to supporting families with children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing without a bias around communication modes or methodology. We’re a parent-driven, non-profit organization providing families with the resources, networks, and information they need to improve communication access and educational outcomes for their children. Our outreach activities, parent/professional collaboration, and advocacy efforts are focused on enabling Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing children to reach their highest potential.

    Starting up the non-profit organization sure wasn’t easy, but it sure was worth it– and it happened because a team of parents, professionals and deaf and hard of hearing adults believed in the mission as well. Today, Illinois Hands & Voices has expanded under the leadership of two more presidents and includes a state-wide Guide By Your Side program.

    As the years went on, Hands & Voices grew from four chapters and expanded worldwide. There clearly was a need for support without bias for parents of deaf and hard of hearing children on the parenting journey.  Every now and then, I will cross paths with someone who feels Hands & Voices is:

    • Not neutral
    • Not balanced enough
    • Not without bias
    • More “hands” than voices
    • More “voices” than hands

    Before I go any further, I invite you to read Hands & Voices, Supporting Families Without Bias by Leeanne Seaver. This document goes into great detail about the Hands & Voices approach to supporting families.

    In the early days of running the organization, I was often thrown into one camp or another based on someone’s judgment of my communication experience, my personal choices for my children or the communication methods used. To me, that judgement represented everything that Hands & Voices is not. When I look at the families, professionals and deaf/hard of hearing adults involved with Hands & Voices, I see caring individuals who have a heart for children and their futures and I feel really blessed to have crossed paths with so many of them.  At any given time, Hands & Voices is whoever is a part of the organization.  Families and individuals are not the sum of their communication experience and we don’t identify our Hands & Voices organization merely by those choices. We do our best to include everyone who wants to be a part of the movement of providing support without bias to families. Whenever we stumble along the process, we try harder yet again.

    The bottom line is to support families along the journey of raising deaf and hard of hearing children. We all have the same goal in mind: well-adjusted, successful kids.

    As for being “neutral,” to me, that’s a color, not an organization. What I love seeing instead is an organization that is passionate, vibrant and colorful– an organization which is made up of amazing, diverse families, professionals, and individuals who celebrate the many different ways there are of being Deaf/deaf and hard of hearing.

    Now that’s Hands & Voices. And I invite you to be a part of it.

    Hands & Voices who do you stand for

     

  • The 2012 EHDI Conference and Henry Kisor

    Last week, I drove down to St. Louis to join the Hands & Voices gang at the EHDI Conference.  It had been several years since I attended an EHDI conference and because I work in early intervention as a Deaf Mentor, I have a heart for this topic.  I’m one of three mentors in Illinois and one of the first trained groups.  The first child I worked with is now thirteen.

    When I attended my first EHDI conference in it’s infancy, I was only one of a few Deaf and Hard of Hearing participants at that time.  At this conference, wow! Everywhere I went, I met up with old and new friends.  The conference has truly grown from the early days and the grand ballroom held around 1,000 people for Hands & Voices board member Christine Yoshinaga-Itano’s keynote opening presentation.

    At Hands & Voices, one of our most requested presentations is Supporting Families Without Bias.  We put together a Part II of this presentation that goes even deeper into the topic.  When I first founded the Illinois Hands & Voices chapter back in 2003, I was often thrown in to “this camp” or “that camp” based on how I communicated or how low the lines were on my audiogram.  Eventually, more and more people embraced the spirit of Hands & Voices and began to understand my passion for our mission, “What works for your child is what makes the choice right.”  What I’m most grateful for during my years with Hands & Voices is that I’ve met so many wonderful families from a variety of backgrounds and experiences.  My kids have grown up with kids who cue/speak/sign/combine/whatever works  and they’ve made some lifelong friends.

    At the EHDI conference, I had the pleasure of sitting down to lunch with Henry Kisor and his wife, Debby.  Henry and I met  several years back when he was working at the Chicago Sun-Times as a book editor.    I first discovered Henry when I read his memoir, What’s That Pig Outdoors  and I enjoyed his frank outlook on life. I interviewed him for the Hands & Voices Communicator:  Henry Kisor, Mystery Author Unveiled.  I like to hang around Henry because he tells me nice stuff like, “You’re a natural writer.”  I would have lunch with him every week if I could.

    During the last night of the conference, Hands & Voices hosted a dinner for everyone involved in state chapters.  When I first joined the board of Hands & Voices, there were just four chapters.  We sat around a table and pondered simply how we could share our mission with others.  Today, we have expanded worldwide and nearly every state has a chapter.

    Back at my first EHDI meeting, we all fit around a single table during our Hands & Voices dinner.  At our dinner last week, we had 75 of  us seated around several tables.  As I worked my way around the room taking pictures and meeting new people, I took a few minutes to talk to a two-and-half year old boy sitting at a table with his father.  The father and I talked about how his family became involved with Hands & Voices.   The little one and I talked about the noodles he was devouring on his plate.

    And that’s what keeps me going year after year– the little ones.