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SW Connecticut's Voice for People with Hearing Loss! |
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WELCOME to the HLAA SW CT Chapter! It all started thirty years ago, 1979, when our name was the Self Help for Hard of Hearing People, Inc. (SHHH) in Bethesda, MD. It was founded and incorporated as a non-profit, educational membership organization by CIA retiree, Howard E. “Rocky” Stone, a Veteran of World War II and a former CIA agent who began to lose his hearing. After searching for information concerning hearing loss, and convinced there had to be other people with hearing loss who could benefit from sharing ideas with one another, Stone founded the organization with a handful of people in his family room. The original start-up group of people has grown to over 200 chapters nationwide. In recent years the name of the organization has been changed to Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) and continues reaching out to those with hearing loss. The Southwestern Connecticut Chapter of HLAA was chartered in 1999, and is composed of numerous individuals and families representing all age groups from various walks-of-life, as well as all types and degrees of hearing loss. In our short existence as the HLAA SW CT Chapter, we have carried on the ideals of our founder Mr. “Rocky” Stone. Our monthly chapter meetings feature professional speakers who present a wide variety of programs related to hearing loss. Also, our chapter has developed many outreach projects reaching out to various groups throughout Fairfield County. We are proud of the individual workshops we have developed for senior’s centers, healthcare providers and visiting nurses associations, hospitals and various civic groups. Our chapter is especially excited about our newest program that helps to educate fourth grade school children on how to communicate with people who have a hearing loss, as well as techniques to protect their ears from our noisy world. We have presented this program in two local schools in Wilton and New Canaan and received great praise from each. We advocate locally to public entities for assistive listening devices, as well as to places of worship and to local theaters, both live theater and movies. We are proud of our monthly award winning newsletter which was recognized as the ‘Best HLAA Chapter Newsletter of 2008 by our National HLAA Org., along with an award for having the ‘Best’ website design from our National HLAA Org. Self-Help has no finer advocate than HLAA NATIONAL and of course our own chapter - the SOUTHWESTERN CONNECTICUT CHAPTER of HLAA. 2008 - 2009 Steering Committee
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