Partnerships Matter
Finding the right organizations with which to partner is crucial in any support setting, and more so in the pediatric world. For over sixty years the FHSR has sought out leading organizations on the forefront of addressing issues surrounding pediatric hearing loss. With this focus, the Foundation places the highest priority on its strategic partnerships working in tandem with clinics, schools and other non-profit organizations to deliver the highest quality programming available to deaf and hard of hearing kids.
FHSR continues to vet potential partners to help us support our mission and vision, creating life changing social service programs and community outreach for our community.
FHSR is proud to partner with local music schools and schools that have deaf programming to create the Music To My Ears program which includes early childhood music enrichment classes, instrument and group music classes and curriculum and after school music programs for children with hearing loss.
Music Makers of Western Springs
Community School for the Arts – Wheaton
Encore Music Academy – Crystal Lake
Tiny Toes Music – LaGrange, Downers Grove, Hinsdale, Burr Ridge, Clarendon Hills
Music & Movement – GCCNS – Glenview
School of Rock – Glenview, Northbrook
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Chicago Public Schools:
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FHSR has partnered with Chicago Hearing Society’s Youth Connections Program to create the EARs Early Literacy training program for Early Intervention service providers. This train-the-trainer program model strengthens the service providers skill set on reading to a child with hearing loss so they are able to train the parents / caregivers on how to create a literacy rich home environment.
FHSR partners with local hospitals and clinics to stock hearing aid banks, providing loaners to children whose hearing aids are being replaced or repaired. In addition, we partner with Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago’s Audiology department funding the Hart Family Cochlear Implant Education Coordinator.
DR. NANCY YOUNG, MD
Recognizing a gap in services for pediatric hearing loss, the FHSR Board of Directors established a strategic partnership with the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (formerly Children’s Memorial Hospital) in 2000. This collaboration aimed to secure funding for a unique set of services and programs.
Working with their Audiology team and Dr. Nancy Young, MD, the goal was to remove barriers by helping children with hearing loss communicate more effectively and ease their access to services.
FHSR began funding:
- Hearing Aid Technician Providing fittings, repairs and ear molds
- Bilingual Social Workers Supporting newly identified families of children with hearing loss
- Special Equipment Purchases such as an Auditory Brainstem Response machine allowing infants to be tested un-sedated in the clinic
Nancy M. Young, MD, FACS, FAAP is the Lillian S. Wells Professor of Pediatric Otolaryngology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Fellow of the Knowles Hearing Center of Northwestern. She is Head of the Section of Otology and Neurotology in the Division of Otolaryngology, and Medical Director of Audiology & the Cochlear Implant Programs at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s of Chicago. She is President-elect of the American Otological Society and a member of the Board of Directors of the Hearing Health Foundation. She was a founding board member of the American Cochlear Implant Alliance.
Dr. Young leads a multi-center study supported by NIH/NIDCD to develop individual child level language prediction after cochlear implantation using pre-surgical brain anatomy derived from magnetic resonance imaging and AI-enabled analytical methods. The goal of this research is to develop a predict-to-prescribe method to improve language outcome by implementation of effective individualized behavioral therapy. She is also principal investigator of the lead site of a multi-center sponsored FDA clinical trial to expand pediatric indications for the MED-EL Synchrony implant system.
BECOME A PARTNER
We are always seeking partners to help us expand our reach and increase our services while maintaining the highest caliber of programming. Organizations looking to fund in the areas of pediatric hearing loss support need look no further than FHSR. By creating a strategic partnership with FHSR other hospitals, private foundations, corporations, and nonprofit organizations can affect meaningful change in deaf and hard of hearing children’s lives.
BE A PART OF IT ALL.
Partnership Options Available
To view our Financials, visit the Financials page. For further information on our Granting Cycle, LOI and Budget information, please contact us.
