Hands & Voices, a national parent-driven, parent-professional collaborative nonprofit organization has recently accepted Maine’s start-up chapter as an official state chapter of the organization. Hands & Voices is dedicated to supporting families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing without bias surrounding communication choices.
The newly-established Maine chapter will focus in part on the follow-up of children after newborn hearing screenings and/or audiologic evaluations. Hands & Voices Maine will establish a Guide by Your Side Program to provide direct mentoring and support to families, which will complement the follow-up work of the Maine Newborn Hearing Program (MNHP) within Maine CDC/DHHS. MNHP was established by law in 2000 to provide information to families about hearing screening, evaluation, and services.
Vivian Mikhail, MNHP’s Parent Consultant and the start-up leader of Hands & Voices Maine, wrote a featured article for the Summer 2010 issue of the Hands & Voices national quarterly newsletter, The Communicator, titled "One Family's Journey: Reaching a New Normal."
For more information about Hands & Voices Maine, please contact Vivian at handsandvoicesmaine@earthlink.net. For more information about the Maine Newborn Hearing Program, please contact Betsy Glencross at Betsy.Glencross@maine.gov.
