Canadian  Helen   Keller  Centre
 

CHKC Newsletter

 

The Canadian Helen Keller Centre, Inc. Newsletter

Fall 2003, Volume 6

 

 

Introduction from The Executive Director

 Hello everyone! I hope you are well. My name is Patricia Grant and I am the new Executive Director of CHKC. I started on September 2, 2003. I have been busy promoting the Centre, developing our programs and of course, writing your newsletter.
 
The theme for this volume is ‘word of mouth'. Because of the isolation experienced by some individuals who are Deaf-Blind, potential students may not know that we exist. Professionals, such as doctors and social service workers may not know either. On a government level, politicians need to hear more about CHKC, Intervenors and the services you need – the services that you are not currently getting. It is for these reasons that I am encouraging everyone to promote CHKC by ‘word of mouth’. Please tell the people you know about CHKC. You can always refer them to me.
 
For those of you unfamiliar with the Centre, CHKC is a not-for profit, training centre that provides free training to individuals who are Deaf-Blind. Our programs are one-on-one, tailored to the student’s specific needs and are provided in an environment free of communication barriers.

Ground Breaking News

The Supreme Court of Canada has released their unanimous decision in the case of Martin and Laseur vs Nova Scotia (Workers Compensation Board).
 
The Court found that an individualized approach to disability is necessitated by the Charter guarantee of equality. For persons with disabilities, the purpose of the equality right is as follows: “the rationale underlying the prohibition of disability-based discrimination is the imperative to recognize the needs, capacities and circumstances of persons suffering from widely different disabilities in a vast range of social contexts.”

Public Awareness

 
The Centre has been visible at many events such as the Rolling Rampage, the Terry Fox luncheon (courtesy of the Canadian Bankers Association) and the Toronto Don-Valley Rotary Club Bowl-a-thon. We had 3 groups of college students tour the Centre from George Brown College and Mohawk College. Sharon Durnan, a graduate and advocate for CHKC, made a presentation to these students about Deaf-Blindness and CHKC.
 
Joyce Thompson and Megan McHugh went to an Open House at ARCH, a legal resource centre for people with disabilities and Joyce and Megan met the new Willowdale MPP, David Zimmer.

Awareness and Advocacy Efforts MUST Increase!

 
Everyone reading this newsletter could/should help spread awareness of the needs of persons who are Deaf-Blind. Please help yourselves or others who need your help. Canadians who acquired the disability of Deaf-Blindness are the most under-served population in Canada. There are very few advocating for more services. Only 16 Canadians with acquired Deaf-Blindness receive adequate services i.e.., access to services every day of the week.

It is estimated that there are 7,000 Canadians with Deaf-Blindness, based on figures documented by the USA and several countries in Europe which have fairly extensive services. Ontario’s population is one-third of the total population in Canada. That means there are approximately 2,300 Ontarians who are Deaf-Blind, approximately 1,400 of whom acquired the disability after early childhood.
 
As long as there are no service centres or an insufficient number of service centres in all provinces, we will never know how many Canadians who are Deaf-Blind are not receiving the services they need.

The individuals who are not receiving adequate services should speak up about their need for services. Every Canadian has an elected representative, a local MPP, who is responsible for informing the Provincial government about problems with government services. They are supposed to help us get our problems resolved.
 
The Provinces of Canada are responsible for disability support services, not the federal government. Canadians have rights to services and their provincial governments should not continue to discriminate between the causes of, or age when, a disability is acquired; there should be service equity. BUT, the government will not know about the lack of services if they are not told about the problem.

YOU can and should make an appointment with your local MPP to explain your need for services. Go to the constituency office, located in your neighbourhood and ask the secretary for an appointment to meet with your MPP about services. Tell the secretary that you will need an Intervenor and/or a Note-taker for the meeting. The MPP is responsible for paying the Intervenor and Note-taker for the services you need for the meeting. All the MPP’s I have met have been easy to talk to; you do not need to feel nervous about this meeting, the MPP is there to help YOU; it is his or her job.
 
NOW is a very good time to go. If each individual in Ontario spoke about their need for services then I am sure something would be done about the lack of services for persons with acquired Deaf-Blindness. You cannot wait for someone else to do it for you. YOU must do it. Your MPP is responsible for listening to YOU.
 
If you have questions or need help to find where your MPP office is either I or Megan McHugh will try our best to help you. You can contact us by leaving a message at CHKC, (the numbers are at the end of this newsletter), or by e-mailing:

Enrolment

CHKC is anticipating the arrival of 2 residential students in January and March of 2004. The centre was designed for people who are Deaf-Blind and wish to increase their skills for independent living AND includes accommodation for persons from out-of-town. We are excited about having these 2 out-of-towners coming to the Centre and are inviting you to become part of their learning experience. There will be nights and weekends free for socializing and increasing your network of peers and friends. Please note the ability to offer programs depends on factors at the time the request for instruction is made, such as: the number of students enrolled, the availability of instructors and available funding.
 
 

Programs

  
We are currently providing O&M, cooking, communication, computer and braille classes. New for 2004 are the Technical Devices and Business Writing courses. The purpose of the Technical Devices course is to assist individuals in learning what devices are available, how to get them prescribed and funded and where to get them from. After the devices have been acquired, individuals can receive training on them. The Business Writing focuses on developing basic writing skills that may be used in a variety of business environments.
 
One other program I would like to bring to your attention is ‘Using Intervenor Services’. Individuals who take this course get to use Intervenors in different situations (students choose the situations), discuss the results with their Intervenors, peers and the instructor, and are invited to hear guest speakers. All this helps to develop an effective approach to using your Intervenor. Please contact CHKC for details.  
 
A full description of our current programs can be found here.
 
 

Volunteer News

 
I am not alone in the Centre. I have my placement student Daisy Lor, the guidance and assistance of Joyce Thompson and the unwavering support of Ferda Suleiman, to name a few of the people who support CHKC. Ferda continues to volunteer at the Centre and is organizing the filing system by developing a computerized database that makes finding information easy. You may remember Ferda from JuneFest – she was responsible for the raffle and has been invaluable.

I have received several requests from people to volunteer and would like to have an orientation session for people that need to learn about CHKC. If you would like to volunteer at CHKC or be a part of the orientation session, please contact me. There is a variety of interesting volunteer activities for you to choose from. And there are some sighted-hearing people who want to volunteer for you. CHKC can help you train a volunteer if that is what you want to do.

We now have a railing at the stairs going along the path that leads to the house. Thank you, Orientation & Mobility Services, for making this possible.

The Garden Club of Toronto is working on beautifying the grounds. They have transplanted flowers and shrubs from the CNIB Fragrant Garden, have widened the flower beds and are working on major improvements for the spring of 2004. Thank you to the Committee from the Garden Club of Toronto for all your hard work.

Thank you also to the Toronto Don-Valley Rotary club for supporting CHKC. We had a great time at the bowl-a-thon.
 

DbI 2003 by Megan McHugh

I attended the DbI 2003 conference and found it to be very interesting and enlightening. It was interesting to meet people from other countries and share experiences and information. It was also great to meet up with some old friends from the past and reconnect.
 
One experience I had in particular that stood out for me was being asked to stand in, along with Karen Wood, as the presenter for the Cochlear Implant Workshop. Karen and I met through the lunch hour and discussed what we wanted to talk about in the workshop. At the workshop, we were joined by a woman named Patricia Lago-Avery, who was a great source of information.
 
During the presentation, Patricia and I both shared our personal experiences of losing our hearing due to Usher Syndrome and talked about the effects of the combination of hearing and vision loss. We talked about what our lives were like when our hearing deteriorated to the point where it was very difficult for us to function and then how our lives changed when we received our Cochlear Implants. The adjustments to the Cochlear Implant were also discussed, how it usually takes time and patience for most people before they are able to hear well.
 
Karen Wood discussed her experiences as an Orientation and Mobility Instructor, working with me after I received my Cochlear Implant. She talked about how we would go out walking around the neighbourhood and I would try to identify various sounds that would give me clues to what was going on in my environment. Earlier on, I had trouble identifying common sounds such as the sound of a dog barking or a bird chirping, but later on I was able to identify those. After some practice, I was able to identify various sounds of vehicles approaching, starting, stopping, etc., which is very useful when you are visually impaired. I found the experience of presenting the Cochlear Implant Workshop to be very interesting and enjoyable. I felt it went pretty well, considering the limited preparation time we had.
 
 

Student Dazes by Audrey Southorn

 
I had begun to notice that I was not hearing as well as I should. It was a matter of speech discrimination. Around the end of August, I received a copy of the Canadian National Society of the Deaf-Blind’s newsletter.
 
It had a telephone number to call if you were having problems.
 
I called the phone number and found that it was the number for the Rotary Cheshire Apartments. The nice lady there explained that all the staff were at a conference and she would have someone call me when they got back the next week. Sure enough, Joyce Thompson called about a week later and thus began my experiences with the Canadian Helen Keller Centre.
 
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the Centre was in a lovely house in a quiet neighborhood. I was expecting a building with offices and other businesses. My first day was spent getting to know people, planning lesson times and filling out papers for the files. Since then, I have been learning the 2-Hand Manual, O&M, and computer skills such as email and instant messaging which turns out to be fun. The staff are very friendly and you get to meet new people. And now I am adding ASL to my programs so I will meet another Karen. (There are 2 instructors with the same name).
 
I am looking forward to this new adventure to see where we will go from here. At the Centre, you are treated just like any other person except we use any means necessary to communicate with one another. I am sure it perks a lot of the people up. I know it did perk me – it is nice to know that some people are willing to make the effort to communicate with us even though it is a little harder to do so. The one-on-one teaching method seems to work best. I think that it would be harder in a group. 
 

2004 Entertainment Books for Sale!!

Help support Rotary Cheshire Homes and CHKC by purchasing a 2003 Entertainment coupon book! Funds raised will go directly to help CHKC provide programs and services.
 
The Entertainment Book is packed with hundreds of 2-for-1 and 50% off discounts in your area. The coupons add up to thousands of dollars in savings on local groceries, movies, dining out, sporting events, video rentals and much much more! The savings continue nationwide with great offers like 50% off hotels and discounts on airlines and car rentals.
 
RCA & CHKC currently have the Toronto area book on hand, and books can be ordered online for 150 other cities throughout North America. The cost of each book is $32.00 and $15.00 from each purchase will go to CHKC.
 
Please contact Melisa at Rotary Cheshire (416) 730-9501, email us at rcheshire@rogers.com, or visit www.entertainment.com/support and enter seller # 68203 on the first page to ensure RCA & CHKC receive credit.

   

Seasons Greetings

We hope you have enjoyed this volume of ‘Bridging Hands’. Please share it with your friends and family. If you would like to comment on this newsletter, we would love to hear from you. The current version can always be found on our website.
 
In closing, we want to wish you and your family a warm and safe holiday season. See you next year!  
 
We sincerely appreciate the continuing support for our training programs from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, (OTF). Thank you on behalf of our participants to the OTF for supporting the training options available at CHKC which offer participants opportunities to gain skills for independent living and improved quality of life.
 
The Ontario Trillium Foundation, an agency of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, receives annually $100 million of government funding generated through Ontario’s charity Casino initiatives. It allocates grants to eligible charitable and not-for-profit organization in the arts, culture, sports, recreation, environment and social service sectors.
 
Please check our updated website for the latest news and donor recognition. The current version of ‘Bridging Hands’ can always be found there.
 
Call or e-mail the Centre if you are Deaf-Blind and wish to upgrade or gain independent living and technical skills.
 
If you wish to comment or contribute to the next issue of ‘Bridging Hands’ Newsletter or have questions please phone, fax or e-mail us, we would love to hear your comments. Please feel free to write an article or contact me with an idea. I can help develop submissions for ‘Bridging Hands’ with you.
 
 

all donations to CHKC are tax deductible

The Canadian Helen Keller Centre is the first skills training centre in Canada where individuals who are Deaf-Blind can upgrade or gain independent living and technical skills.

Through our web site, our goal is to inform persons who are deaf-blind, their families, service providers, volunteers, supporters, and the general public about the needs, concerns and challenges of persons living with both vision and hearing loss.