Janet DesGeorges...: Hey, everyone. Welcome to At The Table with Hands & Voices, our new podcast series. We're so excited to have you here with us today. Hey, Hands & Voices is a parent-driven organization that supports families with children who are deaf or hard of hearing without a bias around communication modes or [00:00:30] methodologies. We envision a world where children who are deaf and hard of hearing have every opportunity to thrive and achieve to their full potential, celebrating all families and their diverse cultures, ensuring equity and inclusion for all. My name is Janet DesGeorgess. I'm so excited to be here with you today, along with my co-host, Helen Leiser. Helen, hi.
Helen Leiser: [inaudible 00:00:55] hello, everybody. I'm so excited to be here. My name is Helen. I'm a [00:01:00] parent of two deaf girls who are now teenagers. I've been involved with Hands & Voices, gosh, for, oh, about 13 years now, here in Oregon where I live, and then also at the headquarter level. We wanted to bring this podcast out to the world because Hands & Voices is just so rich with resources and material and education and support. We are parents in this organization, but we are also [00:01:30] great partners with professionals around the world who really help us grow as individuals and as parents. And so, we thought, "Let's bring this out to the world in a different way."
Janet DesGeorges...: Yeah. You know, I think about how families get information. I myself am a parent of three beautiful now young adult daughters. Our youngest daughter is deaf, hard of hearing. And I live in Boulder, Colorado. I'm the executive director for [00:02:00] Hands & Voices.
And you know, I like to quote myself, Helen. This is really bad, but I made up this quote once. I always say to people, "If half the people would use half the resources half the time, our kids would be doing twice as well." When I think about why we're doing this podcast, I think about the way all of us like to receive information differently when and where we like to receive information. We know how busy people are in the world today, and so thinking about just this [00:02:30] idea that this is one other way that we can deliver information, resources, support to the families and professionals we serve.
I love podcasts because you can take them and use them where you want them. And so, yeah, I'm really excited about some of the things that we're going to be covering. Talk a little bit, Helen, about who our audience is.
Helen Leiser: Our audience are leaders of Hands & Voices in [00:03:00] our chapters. But I think our audience is also ... are parents who are parents of deaf and hard of hearing children. But really, as parents who have a child or children experiencing a disability, I think this podcast is for everybody.
We are all traveling this path and this journey with our children, and it's so special in so many ways, and there is some uniqueness to it, [00:03:30] and we can learn from each other, we can grow together, we can get ideas from one another. So, I really think that what we're offering in this podcast is for everybody. And I think too that professionals will also get a lot about this, and they will grow as they're working with parents of deaf and hard of hearing children, and parents whose children are experiencing a disability.
Janet DesGeorges...: Yeah, for sure. I'm glad you brought up the word leader, because I think this is going to be the lens by which we look at a lot of different topics. [00:04:00] I know not everybody resonates with that term, leader. I know for us as parents, we have to learn, of course, to be leaders within our own family context for our kids. And then for a lot of us in the nonprofit organizations that we serve in terms of leading others, and then also leading in systems in order to create systemic change. And I think like you said, that's true for professionals as well.
And so I think we're going to keep that [00:04:30] theme of leadership. In fact, we're so pleased to bring you this podcast series out of a project that we're doing here at Hands & Voices called the Family Leadership in Language and Learning Center, the FL3 Center. And we really do focus a lot of our efforts on the idea that leaders and leadership is what creates sustainability, accountability, continuity, and really the ability for us in [00:05:00] particular, as parents, to create and improve the system set service.
We're really excited to think about some of the topics that we're going to be doing. We're going to be ... Helen and I are going to sort of inaugurate the first episode in terms of thinking about letting go of ego. We're going to be talking about racism and the raw talk. We'll be talking about, can professionals and [00:05:30] particularly audiologists who serve families, can they do it in an unbiased approach? We're going to bring in some interesting people on different topics, and I think we're just getting started. And we really hope to be able to include you as the audience in terms of content that you'd like to hear us explore or see us explore. And so, yeah, we're really raring to go here. Anything else to add, Helen?
Helen Leiser: [00:06:00] No. I just want to add ... Well, yes, I just want to add, we really have been blessed by having so many partners. And so, I really think that this is just, hold on you guys, because we are going to be bringing so many different people to the table here that we can all learn from and be supported by. And so, this is going to be a really fun [00:06:30] opportunity for all of us, so hold on tight.
Janet DesGeorges...: Yeah. And we love the title, Hands & Voices At The Table. That just represents to us, at the table, the idea that there's room for all at the table, that we believe the idea that different perspectives will bring the richness and the full piece of the puzzle for what we all really hope to achieve. And kind of back [00:07:00] to our vision here at Hands & Voices, is a world where our children can achieve and thrive. So yeah, fasten your seat belts. Thanks, Helen. I look forward to getting going with you. Thanks everyone.
Helen Leiser: Bye.
