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About 12 years ago in Ohio, I had the opportunity to advocate for Universal Newborn Hearing
Screening in Ohio. And although that was a great victory in Ohio—we were able to screen
and identify babies early—we realized there was a huge gap because we were not able to
provide effective funding for families to obtain hearing aids for their child that were
just identified with hearing loss.
Through an advocacy group or service group, Quota International, a dedicated group of
women got together to try to fill that gap. And through a grant-funded program, we were
able to start the program Sound Beginnings. And our main mission is to provide the initial
set of hearing aids for any child in our area, regardless of financial income with their
first set of hearing aids so that they can begin early intervention services quickly
and effectively.
The steps that we took to achieve this goal was: One, we had a clear vision. We knew what
we were looking for. So that was our first step. The second step is to gain the support
of those who had that same vision. So for our purpose, it was a service organization
whose mission was to help those with speech and hearing needs. Once we had identified
a foundation, what we did is we looked at their grant guidelines, and we followed those
grant guidelines specifically. I think that's a really important part is to follow whatever
the grant tells you to do. Then when you kind of wait for the timelines, and you keep looking
for opportunities to write and to gain money from different foundations with their different
timelines and their deadlines.
I think another important aspect of this whole process is your community connection. Because
when you get out there, and you advocate, and you tell what your purpose is, there are
certain people in the community that might have a connection to somebody else, and that
opens up doors that you can apply for other foundations and other service organizations
who might support whatever it is that your cause might be.
I think the challenges that we faced is we were an all-volunteer organization. So you
have a committed group of people who are all volunteering their time. So one of our challenges
was the time that is needed to invest in grant writing and to finding funds and foundations
that will support your cause. And once you get the grant, another challenge is that there's
the continuous work of making sure that you report and are in compliance with whatever
your goals and your objectives of the grant are. So, again, another time commitment in
order to keep up with the foundation's requirements for the grant. And that's something you really
want to do in order to apply down the road for future funding.
By having a pilot program called Sound Beginnings—which was a regional program for hearing aids for
kids—the ultimate outcome of that was that it gave us a springboard to then create a
task force to look at this initiative statewide. By having that initial information, we were
then able, through a task force, to approach our state legislators and talk to them about
a statewide initiative to get hearing aids funded for kids. Initially, we asked our state
legislators to look at an insurance route. How can we get hearing aids covered through
insurance? And I would like to say we were a little skeptical about that route. However,
they had an outside-the-box way of thinking, and they said, let's look at our state budget
and see if we can somehow figure out a way in order to purchase or provide hearing aids
for kids within a select group of children who need them. And our representatives, Kirk
Schuring and Christina Hagan, they pursued this effort, and in the last budget cycle,
we were able to get a line item in the budget for $200,000 to provide hearing aids for children
whose families fall within 400 percent of the poverty level. They cannot qualify for
Medicaid or BCMH. However, if they fall between 200 and 400 percent of the poverty level,
they can apply for funding throughout our state. We predict with this $200,000 that
approximately a hundred children who previously did not have access to the funds for hearing
aids will now have that access.
I think it's so critical for ASHA members to advocate on behalf of those who have communication
needs. If we don't do it, nobody else is going to. Change does not happen automatically,
and it doesn't have to be a huge change, but, collectively, whatever we do can make a difference.
So whether you write to your legislators, host an open house, advocate at the state
level or the national level, whatever you can do, you are the voice for our profession.
I would suggest that ASHA members visit the school funding advocacy website that the School
Finance Committee has put together. This website offers information on grant writing, advocating
for salaries, and many other funding opportunities on this website.