00:00 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Licia Green. Welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network.
00:03 - Licia Green (Guest)
Thank you for having me.
00:05 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Well, I'm really excited to speak with you, as the topic we're talking about today is one of significance. It's a condition, unlike so many others, that we don't see and we can make assumptions, but without that visual cue, we really don't know about this particular disorder and, as we're going to learn, children with hearing loss are more prolific, I think, than most people know. Three out of a thousand Correct, it's a bigger number than I ever would have thought. Tell us about the concept of children with hearing loss as it relates to CCHAT, if you would.
00:44 - Licia Green (Guest)
So CCHAT Children's Choice for Hearing and Talking is a listening and spoken language program for children with hearing loss. They're all accessing sound with hearing aids, cochlear implants, and our goal is to help them achieve age-appropriate listening and spoken language skills as quickly as possible and then get them back into their neighborhood schools.
01:06 - Jeff Holden (Host)
And we're going to talk a little bit about that technology in the conversation a bit later but if you would tell us your situation, your particular story, because yours is very unique in that not only are you the development director for the organization, you're a parent of deaf children and you have been involved with the organization for quite some time 20-plus years, correct. So you know it very, very well. Walk us through your story.
01:36 - Licia Green (Guest)
So on December 8, 2013, my identical twin girls were born. My identical twin girls were born and then, on December 9th, our life was changed forever when we learned that they did not pass the newborn hearing screening and it would be. At that point. They said there could be a number of reasons why they didn't pass fluid in the ears. You know any number of things, but within the month of their birth, it was confirmed that they were both profoundly deaf. The month of their birth, it was confirmed that they were both profoundly deaf. And this was something that we had never considered for our children, our life. What I've come to learn is that, in over 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, and we were those parents.
02:22
No other hearing loss in our family 90% yes and nothing in genealogy to indicate, and in fact for our children we don't have a confirmed etiology behind their hearing loss, but nonetheless they were fitted with hearing aids by two months of age. Hearing aids by two months of age. And then it was just through really sheer luck that one of our dear friends knew about the chat center, because we literally lived seven miles from the organization and never knew that they existed. But as is often the case with the amazing number of nonprofits that serve our community, you don't know about them until you need them.
03:09 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Which I was just going to say. It's a need-based awareness Right.
03:12 - Licia Green (Guest)
So as the girls were turning four months old, we toured and quickly enrolled them into the chat center.
03:21 - Jeff Holden (Host)
So it was an introduction from a friend by happenstance who just said this organization exists. What brought you to the realization that you were going to enroll your children there?
03:32 - Licia Green (Guest)
Well, as I mentioned, we didn't have any personal experience with children with hearing loss, adults with hearing loss. It really wasn't until she mentioned that our children could learn to listen and talk that we even considered this a possibility. And I will tell you, I was a huge skeptic. I was a school teacher for a number of years prior to the girls being born, and even in my education background I hadn't had a children with hearing loss in my classroom. But I wanted to do my due diligence, if you will. I wanted to see and check out, research, the different resources and communication options that were available to my children. So on the day that we visited, from the moment we stepped in the door, there was just this feeling of happiness, of joy, of hope. Children just like mine.
04:29 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Being children.
04:29 - Licia Green (Guest)
Yes, yes, and that really is one of the beauties of the program is how the child is honored first along this really vital path to listening and spoken language. But to your point, children first. And literally my mother had accompanied me that day. We stood in the parking lot and cried because there was so much relief in knowing that our children had the opportunity to learn, to develop spoken language and really be integrated into our family, our personal community.
05:04 - Jeff Holden (Host)
And grow as a typically developing child would be expected to grow. Now you just had a little bit of a milestone. I know, because we had to reschedule that from my visit at the chat center. You just got back from Europe with one of your daughters. I did, and, as twins, one of your daughters the other didn't go, which is even, I know, more of an experience.
05:26 - Licia Green (Guest)
Yes, for all of us. Actually, the girls just finished their second year at University of Nevada. Reno Colby decided, actually in the fall, that she wanted to do a study abroad experience and I said go ahead, take it and run with it, and she did everything needed besides the funding part. The parents came in there, but she left in January and spent five months in a small town called Viterbo and for many years now the girls' hearing loss has not been of concern to me because they had such an amazing start at chat. They came out with outstanding oral communication skills, self-advocacy skills. I was quite confident that she was going to be able to handle herself even in a foreign country. But to top it off, she chose to take Italian.
06:19 - Jeff Holden (Host)
I was just going to say in a foreign language. Yes, yes, which is even somewhat mind-boggling to think. Here's a child, a student, now adult young adult with hearing loss in a foreign country, learning a foreign language and able to communicate.
06:38 - Licia Green (Guest)
Yes.
06:39 - Jeff Holden (Host)
And not only survive, but thrive.
06:41 - Licia Green (Guest)
Right and along the way. They received cochlear implants at a very young age their first one at one, their second at three and a half, and would you explain that for the audience?
06:50 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Not everybody knows what that is.
06:52 - Licia Green (Guest)
So most are familiar with hearing aids. They're going to be a technology that basically makes sounds louder, but for my children, being profoundly deaf, they were not acknowledging sound until it was at 110 decibels, which is like a jet engine going off by your ear. So hearing aids were not giving them enough gain to acquire spoken language, so they qualified for cochlear implants. And now, all these years ago almost 20, they didn't do bilateral implantation.
07:24
So, both ears if you qualify both ears at the same time. So the girls received their first one at one and then their second at three and a half, and then through the experts, which I know we'll talk about a little bit more later, but the experts of the chat center. It's so important that these devices are supported with the services that help them be successful.
07:49
Because, you and I both wear glasses and we go and get our prescription and you put them on and it's like oh, I can see. That is not how it happens with technology that helps with hearing. It's really a process, especially with cochlear implants, to train the brain on what it's hearing, yes, right.
08:10 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Or what it's sensing, yes, yes, what activity is in the neural pathways?
08:13 - Licia Green (Guest)
Yeah, so it was really when Colby, as the months went by and she was just thriving, I was again like immersed in gratitude for what the chat center had given her as a foundation. It's really allowed her to pursue whatever it is she's wanted to do, she chooses to do.
08:31 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Yeah Well, and I like that story of hope up front because it demonstrates that your child, who may have hearing loss, is not at as great a disadvantage as so many people think at first. I mean it's traumatic. It's not what you expected. What's the age range of the children you support at the CCHAT Center?
08:55 - Licia Green (Guest)
So at the center, which is in Rancho Cordova, we're serving kids birth through third grade. But we have a few other programs. We have a mainstream support program where we have teachers of the deaf going out into surrounding school districts and they're supporting this year over 300 children with hearing loss and can do so through age 21. Oh wow. And then we also, a few years, launched a newborn hearing diagnostic program. So last year we provided 100 appointments to families with infants who needed the initial screening or perhaps a diagnostic evaluation to see if there was actually hearing loss present.
09:37 - Jeff Holden (Host)
What's the capacity? How many students slash children can you accommodate?
09:43 - Licia Green (Guest)
We have yet to reach capacity. It's great to hear.
09:47
Well, it is, and that's not necessarily in facility, but that's in totality Well, I feel like it's most important for us, at least with this point, to address the center, because there is an ideal window for spoken language acquisition and if we had a wait list, we would be losing valuable time that a child with hearing loss could be working towards age-appropriate skills. So actually, we have an amazing executive director and staff who make it work so that, regardless of when the families and the children arrive, they are able to enroll and start making progress.
10:28 - Jeff Holden (Host)
So in this case this situation always best sooner than later.
10:33 - Licia Green (Guest)
Always. That's why we call it early intervention. Right. We have newborn hearing screening in place, so prior to the child leaving the hospital, in most cases they are receiving a hearing screening. Then, should they need it, a follow-up diagnostic evaluation. Then immediately getting some kind of amplification it's typically hearing aids and then enrolling in some sort of early intervention program. For families who want to follow a listening and spoken language path, then CCHAT is the model program for that.
11:07 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Are there any other organizations like this in the greater Sacramento region?
11:11 - Licia Green (Guest)
Not in our region.
11:12 - Jeff Holden (Host)
We have a sister school in Redwood City.
11:15 - Licia Green (Guest)
But you bring up a great point that we have a very broad service area. We are a day school, we are not residential, so folks need to be able to drive in on a daily basis to benefit from service. But it's amazing what families will do to access the resources that are really going to be life-changing for their children. We have families over the past 26 years who've come from Modesto, Napa, Yuba City, even those who have moved from. We had a family move from Singapore because the father could transfer with his work and twins again. Wow, they did not have services there, so they came here, benefited from service and actually have moved back. So we have actually an international impact, right, but we have kids coming from Benicia, vacaville, fairfield on a bus every day. I mean, this is a transformative program and when we can get them very early, there's just this opportunity really for them to return back early, start kindergarten with their hearing peers and move on with their educational aspirations.
12:26 - Jeff Holden (Host)
So there's two questions that I've been holding that I want to interject. Okay, how old is the school? How old theCCHAT the?
12:33 - Licia Green (Guest)
center we opened in 1996.
12:36 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Okay, that's almost 30 years now.
12:39 - Licia Green (Guest)
Yeah, amazing it is Just amazing.
12:42 - Jeff Holden (Host)
And then the second part of that is for somebody who's listening or somebody who's maybe not aware. Obviously there's some denial. Get over it and get your child into the organization sooner than later Because, as is the case with so many issues with either our personal selves or our children, you don't want to really admit it, you don't really want to say but in this case it's so critical sooner better than later.
13:11 - Licia Green (Guest)
It is, and it really, having walked this path, it requires that the parents really be advocates for their children at a time that they may not have realized that they need to do so, and when like for me I don't have other children, but perhaps families who have other children, but perhaps families who have older children and they see that this child isn't talking or, you know, isn't you know doing something that perhaps an older sibling did? You know it's time to go to the pediatrician, request a hearing test. We still have children and families who aren't finding us until they're two, three, four years old and of course, as you would imagine, they are coming with delay in their listening and spoken language skills. But we know when the system works, as we hope it would there's early diagnosis, early amplification and then immediate enrollment in an intervention program.
14:06 - Jeff Holden (Host)
And proper support.
14:07 - Licia Green (Guest)
Yes For the child and the parent and the parents.
14:10 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Yes, and that's a perfect segue to. The next question I've got is the programs you've got on the website. It's a huge volume of content and opportunity for both child slash student as well as parents and families. Could you walk us through some of those programs that you've got, maybe the most popular or those that get most use?
14:33 - Licia Green (Guest)
I think it's important to share that as soon as an infant has a confirmed hearing loss diagnosis, they can enroll in the chat center into our Baby and Me program.
14:50
It's a parent participation class where not only is this very small child, who wouldn't typically be in a structured environment, is encouraged to attend and have sound awareness, but it is an opportunity for us to take in these families and say we understand this path that you are on, we are here to support you.
15:09
We have people on staff like myself who have been down this path before and we're here to help your child succeed as they get older. We have a full array of academic classes through third grade. That includes daily individualized speech therapy, which is a hallmark of our program. In no other situation would you find a child being pulled for 30 minutes each day to work on their individual goals and objectives. They have daily music experiences. We also offer which is coming up soon a three-week summer school program so that children are not having regression over the summer or withdrawal from their friends and the school and the fun and everything else, and it is fun because we like to frame it as camp, yeah, and it's a shortened day and there are exciting things, but there are not a lot of fancy environment and guide.
16:10
Each exchange or each type of interaction or project that they're doing. There is going to be a language goal, a language component, and we draw the families into this because they must be partners Right, because they must be partners.
16:44 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Right.
16:44 - Licia Green (Guest)
We only have the children so many hours a day and it's important that they're driving them or making sure they get to school every day. They're wearing their devices all waking hours. Jeff, I'll tell you, I got so tired of narrating our life to the girls when they were young. You must, yeah.
17:06 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Come on, you guys, you have to. I got a treat in the car, yeah, but it's also things that we do naturally reading with your children.
17:13 - Licia Green (Guest)
Get outside, go to the park. What do you see? You know how can you engage your child linguistically and I really found for me it made me very present in my parenting.
17:27 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Oh, I'm sure.
17:27 - Licia Green (Guest)
I was not guaranteed anything.
17:29 - Music Teacher (Host)
Right.
17:31 - Licia Green (Guest)
So every sound, every word was cause for celebration. And you know, on a funny side note there was there came a time where we started to play the quiet game in the car because the girls were talking so much. But you know, that's much farther down the road.
17:46 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Yeah.
17:46 - Licia Green (Guest)
But that is the type of story I can share with new families, saying I know what you're going through. Typical child.
17:54 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Yes, these children are the same as anybody else. They just have a deficit in hearing, correct. You mentioned the programs, and one of them was music.
18:04 - Music Teacher (Host)
And.
18:04 - Jeff Holden (Host)
I'd like to insert at this point something from Meredith that's actually on the website. Yeah, so we'll play that now.
18:10 - Music Teacher (Host)
I love counting numbers Always on my mind. One thing I can say is Music is a huge part of what we do here. It's not just for the little kids although that seems like you know an obvious age group to use it with but even my older kids are very inspired by music. Music is a great place for them to learn things that are actually precursors to literacy, so rhythm and timing, things like that, and also just vocabulary, right. So we could be singing head, shoulders, knees and toes if you're really little, or we could be singing roots, stem, leaves and flower if you're really old and you're working on those vocabulary words. So music has been a really great way to sort of make it fun for them.
18:50
The beginning of the day here at the CCHAT Center, it probably looks like the beginning of any other school day. Kids are putting away their backpacks, they're hanging up their jackets, they take out their folders, they put away homework. But the slight difference at the beginning of the day is that a lot of our students are using what's called hearing assistive technology, which is equipment that allows them more access to sound in the classroom. So, in addition to all those things, they're putting receivers on each hearing aid or each cochlear implant. They're getting a transmitter out for the teacher, they're getting connected and they're handing that off to whoever's going to be teaching that day.
19:18
Throughout the day they're still doing math, reading, writing, spelling, all those things there math, reading, writing, spelling, all those things. There's a lot more language component maybe than the average classroom, so we're expecting them to talk a lot more. It's a smaller class size here and we're also taking activities where, for example, snack time, where we're not just giving away something but we're sort of using it as a way to elicit language from them. So, waiting to give them a snack until they say something like can I have or I want, and then through the end of the day, they're packing up their folders, they're packing up their backpacks, all those things that you would usually do. But again, now it's time for them to take that technology off and leave it in the classroom.
19:56 - Jeff Holden (Host)
I love how we just learned the significance of music and the transition to education for these children, Leisha. There's so much more going on in this environment. What are some of the technological advances that we've seen?
20:12 - Licia Green (Guest)
Oh, we're so fortunate. Hearing aids have gone from analog to digital Cochlear implants just in the time that my children have benefited from them have upgraded three, four generations. They now have Bluetooth capabilities. They can be worn in the water.
20:32 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Oh wow, yes, you can actually swim with your cochlear implant on.
20:36 - Licia Green (Guest)
Yes.
20:37 - Jeff Holden (Host)
That's amazing, yes.
20:38 - Licia Green (Guest)
For children or adults who have a conductive hearing loss, there is a. It's called a Baha. It's a bone anchored hearing aid.
20:48 - Music Teacher (Host)
There, you go.
20:49 - Licia Green (Guest)
But and even the hearing assistive technology that that students at CCHAT are introduced to and then supported so that they understand how it works. They used to be called FM systems, it's now a hat system, but basically the teacher wears a microphone, the child has a receiver on their hearing aid or cochlear implant, baha, and the teacher's voice goes directly into the device, which at CCHAT isn't as important, because we really work on having an acoustically ideal environment for the child, but with the ultimate goal of them going back to their neighborhood school. You've got large classes, linoleum floors, high ceilings, an HVAC system that should have been replaced years ago.
21:39
That's where it's really important and it helps to support reducing auditory fatigue for the child.
21:46 - Jeff Holden (Host)
The tour you gave me.
21:49
I recall going to a technology center so to speak, on campus and I was able to see the variety of different devices, the technology that's coming out, the software that's being used in these hearing support devices, was really amazing in terms of where it's going, and from a standpoint of a naive observer, somebody who's not immersed in that experience, or a parent, I would imagine for the parents what a huge benefit to be able to learn that part of it as well, so that if your child might be experiencing something it may be the device issue you know you can then get engaged and either talk to somebody at the chat center and or know what to do when that happens.
22:35 - Licia Green (Guest)
Big deal. Yes, we have two audiologists on staff whose primary goals are making sure the children have optimal access to optimum sound, but also you saw the sound booth. That can be a very intimidating environment, especially one where you're putting a child to get quality information, to get quality information. But when they don't have to leave chat to go to their audiologist closer to home or in the Bay Area, they are comfortable with the staff.
23:07 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Certainly less intimidating.
23:09 - Licia Green (Guest)
Correct, they are rested, they are well fed, they have an opportunity to practice learning how to be reliable reporters when having a hearing test. So actually we have amazing partnerships with the many audiologists out there serving our children, and a lot of these testing opportunities happen at CCHAT and then the information is shared out and then it also doesn't require that the child miss school because it all happens within the walls of our building.
23:39 - Jeff Holden (Host)
In the confines of their course study.
23:41 - Music Teacher (Host)
Yes.
23:41 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Which is what a blessing for the families.
23:44 - Licia Green (Guest)
It's not another trip they have to make or another day off of work or hours out of scheduled time can use our speech therapists can use to better support the child in the quest for age-appropriate listening and spoken language skills. They're experiencing every aspect of that child's hearing loss and how they interact with their devices.
24:13 - Jeff Holden (Host)
You've mentioned several times school To integrate this child into the school system as early as kindergarten as a typically developing child, would be sometimes a little bit later, depending on, I would imagine, the processes they've been through through chat center, where their acceptance level is going to be at par with students. They're going to be integrated with. Twenty-six different school districts. You're involved with 26 different school districts. Tell us a little bit about that.
24:44 - Licia Green (Guest)
Well, we are able to have the critical mass of children with hearing loss. So we love partnering with so many local education agencies, be they school districts, county offices of education, where, even though hearing loss is the most frequently occurring birth defect, it is actually a low incidence disability within the school districts. So any school district may have a child with hearing loss who's one in preschool, one in first grade and a seventh grader. Well, it is not cost effective for them to have the expert personnel to support children.
25:26 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Every level right.
25:27 - Licia Green (Guest)
Correct so for them to be able to partner with us. Where we do have listening and spoken language experts, we then bring the child in. You know, as a team we create this IFSP Individualized Family Service Plan if it is a child birth to three, an IEP Individualized Education Plan. Beyond that, we all work as a team to then work through the goals and objectives of those contracts, if you will. So really, the school district is placing the child at chat with the understanding that as soon as we are able to help them achieve age-appropriate listening language literacy skills, back to the school district they will go. So it's really a good faith investment and after almost 27 years we've shown that we have amazing programs with quality outcomes. We're going to do what we say we are capable of doing so.
26:30
We're constantly welcoming kids from different school districts, and for some, who are new to us, it may be a time of they're not quite sure what to expect, but for those school districts that have been with us for many, many years, they now actually refer kids to us.
26:48 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Perfect. Yes, and I know from our conversation earlier at the chat center you had mentioned a lot of the school systems have now incorporated the transmission for the teacher to children with devices, so in other words, they might have an FM transmission system in the school for teachers to utilize.
27:08 - Licia Green (Guest)
Oh, some districts have sound field systems. Yes, but the HAT system that I spoke of earlier will travel with the child back to the school district.
27:19 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Oh, even better. Yes.
27:21 - Music Teacher (Host)
So they bring it.
27:22 - Licia Green (Guest)
Yes, it is district property. Okay, so, we train them on how to use it.
27:27 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Yes.
27:27 - Licia Green (Guest)
And then they take it with them.
27:29 - Jeff Holden (Host)
That's fabulous.
27:29 - Licia Green (Guest)
And then it just elevates their experience in a typical classroom.
27:34 - Jeff Holden (Host)
And it also gives the teacher I imagine some teachers oh, I've got a burden, I've got to deal with this and this and this and this. Well, they don't have. It's no different For them, it's not a challenge, it's as is, and I think, for many teachers.
27:47 - Licia Green (Guest)
They're surprised at how independent the children are and capable and we really try, through our mainstream support team, to get out ahead of a child who is mainstreaming and educate the teacher who's going to welcome that child into his or her class and give them some background on hearing loss, make some suggestions on perhaps seating in the classroom making sure teachers aren't teaching to the board.
28:14
You know there's many different accommodations, if you will that, and it's not only something that's going to benefit the child with hearing loss, but a number of them are going to help the class in general.
28:27 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Right.
28:27 - Licia Green (Guest)
But we really try to support front load, if you will, staff so that they feel a little bit more at ease in welcoming the child to their classroom.
28:41 - Jeff Holden (Host)
If I'm not mistaken, your daughters chose UNR because it did have capacity to teach to children or students, I should say, with hearing loss.
28:50 - Licia Green (Guest)
Actually they chose UNR prior to us realizing, but then so thankful that we were made aware it's a coincidence? Yes, they have an outstanding disability resource center and that is one thing I would encourage families to look into. They serve children with many different challenges To really look into that resource. It has been life-changing for my children as they took that next step into higher education.
29:18 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Yours is a relatively well-funded organization. You're a little over $3 million. How are you funded? How do you raise money? How do you get your resources? How do we keep the doors open? Yes, yes. So how many staff do you have? 33.
29:34 - Licia Green (Guest)
33, okay that includes teachers of the deaf, speech therapists, audiologists, instructional aides, administrative staff. So the contracts that we have with the various local education agencies result in tuition that is based on attendance. There is a shortfall between that attendance and what it actually costs to run the program. That gap falls to development, which is my team.
30:05 - Jeff Holden (Host)
You have a job? Yes, I have job security, thank you.
30:08 - Licia Green (Guest)
And I'm privileged to do it and we close that gap with fundraisers grants. We have an amazing group of individual donors who partner with us and see the value of what we're providing to the community and also what our students are doing after they leave chat. It's really a goal of having them not feel limited by their hearing loss.
30:36 - Jeff Holden (Host)
That's another perfect segue, because it's those success stories that people want to hear, they want to know. Okay, well, you work there. Your children are good because you've been involved the entire time. We're just starting out. Have you got a couple of stories you could share that exemplify the outcome of a student that's gone through the chat center? Probably more stories than we have time to tell. I know, I know.
31:02 - Licia Green (Guest)
After 27 years. We've had a couple full circle moments, which are very beautiful. We've had a student.
31:11 - Jeff Holden (Host)
And I got to meet one of those people. I'm gonna let you tell the story.
31:13 - Licia Green (Guest)
Yes, but you did and I'm so happy you did and I want to also stress.
31:18 - Jeff Holden (Host)
This is one of the organizations that when you walk into, it's palpable the interest and the passion that the people have for the cause and the purpose that they're working with these children on. It was amazing and partly, I'm sure, because you're dealing with little children. They're so cute, they're just so innocent and it's like walking into a kindergarten. You wouldn't know the difference.
31:43 - Licia Green (Guest)
It's very typical in so many ways, but we had one of our alums from our first class has gone on to become a teacher of the deaf and she returned to Chad to teach for a couple of years. Her family moved up to the Pacific Northwest so she has moved there and is now in a doctoral program to continue her education.
32:07 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Good for her. Dominique is the one speaking.
32:09 - Licia Green (Guest)
No, that's actually Krista, oh another one, yes, yes, but you had the opportunity to meet Dominique.
32:17
She's a few years younger than Krista, but as she shared with you, she had an amazing experience, and when it came time for her to consider a profession for herself, she chose. Her ultimate goal is teacher of the deaf, but in the short term she's looking to become a speech language pathology assistant and along the way she is employed as an instructional aide at the CCHAT Center. As you can imagine, she's an amazing example of what's possible for children with hearing loss, but she also acts beautifully as a deaf mentor, because so many of the children at the chat center don't have people in their family that have any type of hearing technology on their ears Right, so they don't know what this looks like in an older person young adult, adult.
33:13
But it's also a great opportunity for her to answer questions of parents and give her personal testimony, if you will, on how she navigates in a hearing world.
33:25 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Yes.
33:25 - Licia Green (Guest)
Successfully.
33:26 - Jeff Holden (Host)
And two things you mentioned, as she mentors, so to speak, parents and works with the children we started with the discussion about this is a disability that is not necessarily recognized. It's not a visibility. You don't see it. On the flip side of that, for example with Dominique, you would never know, no, you wouldn't know that she has hearing loss or is not full hearing. She speaks to you and addresses you as anybody else would, and I think that's the testament to the program for those who are considering or concerned or the fear of what this is going to look like in the future. It's going to look like it would with any other typically developing child that has gone through the program and that's, I think, the beauty of the outcome, of what you're putting back into our system beauty of the outcome of what you're putting back into our system and beyond that, I think sometimes we often fail to notice the impact on the community.
34:30 - Licia Green (Guest)
These children are going back into their neighborhood schools. They're sitting beside their for many of them sitting beside their hearing peers in general education classrooms. They're not requiring additional support services.
34:46 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Yeah, there's no drain on the resources.
34:49 - Licia Green (Guest)
They're able to give back. They are not. Again, I hate to sound like a broken record, but limited. The hearing loss is not what's going to limit them. They may limit themselves, as we as human beings do. The hearing loss is not what's going to limit them.
35:01 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Yes, they may limit themselves, as we as human beings do, as any person.
35:05 - Licia Green (Guest)
But ideally it will not be their hearing loss that gets in the way of their success.
35:11 - Jeff Holden (Host)
What a testament to what's happening in so many different ways, both technologically and the resources, the education, the understanding, the acceptance in so many different ways, through the school system and into the workplace and the environment. And the outcome of the lack of difference, the similarities. That gives the student the confidence, as well as the parents and the family the confidence to know that everything's going to be okay. What would you say is the greatest need that you experience with the organization?
35:50 - Licia Green (Guest)
Well, we are proud to provide all of our services at no cost to families. So our top priority, our biggest need unrestricted funding. And I'm sure that's not a surprise to you, as you host nonprofits on your show, right?
36:07 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Surprisingly, it's not always the greatest need.
36:11 - Music Teacher (Host)
And sometimes it's people.
36:13 - Jeff Holden (Host)
They are struggling. Some nonprofits are struggling with getting volunteers. It's changed since the pandemic Right and it's a different sort of an issue. I actually think money is easier in some cases because people can give, they have some resource to give, or some families have some ability to reciprocate for the benefit that they've been receiving. But to ask them of their time, in some cases they can't do it, they just can't do it. So shift, but for us it is.
36:42 - Licia Green (Guest)
It is definitely funding, but a close second is promoting awareness.
36:47 - Music Teacher (Host)
Mm-hmm.
36:48 - Licia Green (Guest)
I want our community to know that we are a resource and, as we've expanded the services that we provide, not only are we center-based with children learning to listen and talk, but now we're out in the community serving families who, more times than not, their child has. We provide a newborn hearing screening and the child passes the test and off they go with their life. But we were there to support them at a vital point in that infant's life you know, maybe just a few days old, but we know, especially through that service that we provide.
37:30
You know, this year alone we've diagnosed six infants with hearing loss who may not otherwise have had that screening. And now that child should the family choose to walk this path has the opportunity to get hearing aids, be enrolled in a program. This is what we want to be part of in a program. This is what we want to be part of, so that outreach portion, the awareness that we've been around a while, we are experts in this field and we are ready to welcome new families, welcome children and support them on this path.
38:07 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Collaboration with other organizations. Obviously, the school system is one, but are there other nonprofits that you collaborate with as a result of the services you provide and those that they're unable to work with because it's beyond the scope of their service?
38:23 - Licia Green (Guest)
You know our services are fairly unique in what we do and who we serve. New partnerships for us have been really medical, medically centered.
38:34 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Makes sense.
38:34 - Licia Green (Guest)
Yeah, dignity Health. We are in with the California Birth Center in Rocklin providing newborn hearing screenings. And you know I'm always on the lookout for a new partnership. And maybe it is through just a casual conversation that someone says and maybe it is through just a casual conversation that someone says, oh, have you ever thought of this? And I'm like no, but let's try it.
38:55 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Yeah.
38:55 - Licia Green (Guest)
So at this point we don't. We don't have a lot of partnerships with other nonprofits, Although I do immerse myself in opportunities like Big Day of Giving.
39:06 - Jeff Holden (Host)
And I saw $52,000 this year. This is 2024 that we're doing this.
39:11 - Licia Green (Guest)
Yes, that's huge. It's really an opportunity for all of us to come together and strengthen the nonprofit community as one, rather than feeling like we need to be in competition with one another.
39:23 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Well, and I think you touched on something a little bit earlier where it's awareness, you know people aren't aware and part of what we're trying to do is just make people more aware by having people tell their stories about their organizations and just in the circular motion we get of people coming in and out of the studio, we've made connections because they didn't know, or it just didn't make sense at the time, or they just weren't aware. And I'm thinking already we're talking to foster child organizations that start early, early, early on. Yes, who knows that one of those children might not be experiencing hearing loss or have challenges?
40:02 - Music Teacher (Host)
there.
40:02 - Jeff Holden (Host)
Yes, well, I've got a place to connect them. Yes, you need to talk to this organization.
40:07
They've got some children every so often throughout the year that come through like this Just those sorts of cross communication, and it's wonderful when that opportunity happens because that's another child that doesn't have to go through life with the challenge and they have the benefit of the support. You know, in my opinion, something that is near and dear to both myself and my wife, it's education, and if a child starts out with a deficit, the likelihood is they're going to have a challenge all the way through and it's not going to give them all the benefit of things that they could recognize or realize. You know, economically, socially, et cetera. And what you're doing is you're giving these children with hearing loss the ability to not have to experience that, and that's a huge benefit to our community. In so many different ways I met your people. They are amazing people. What you do is amazing, the fact that you've got the experience.
41:10
As a mother of twins who experienced hearing loss, who are now in college sophomores, I can't wait to talk to you in two years, once they graduate. They're off doing their thing, whatever that thing is, and I know it was a surprise to you that they separated One went off to study abroad and one didn't so clearly not identical in so many ways. Right, and I think that's the amazing thing about the opportunities that we get through this studio to share these stories and talk about it, and I just want to say thank you for what you do in helping not only us understand some of the challenges that a child or a family with hearing loss experience, but the ability to say here's what we do to remedy that situation. And not only do we do it, not only have been doing it for almost 30 years. It's successful and it's working and there's great product that's coming out of this organization as a return on that investment that the community makes in what you do. So, to you and your team and your effort, thank you so much.
42:14 - Licia Green (Guest)
Thank you, Jeff. Appreciate you acknowledging that. Thank you.
42:18 - Jeff Holden (Host)
To learn more about the CCHAT center, you can visit their website, cchatsacramentod dot org, or look in the show notes for the link.
