Our Community
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Maryland is one of the 36 states that has a Commission serving the deaf and hard of hearing population and is supported by the state government, but does not function as a Deaf Center.
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Many states have Deaf Centers: California has nine and other states such as Illinois, Kansas and Utah have one where there is a large cluster of deaf population.
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Maryland has over 1.2 million Deaf and hard of hearing residents.
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Frederick has thousands of deaf and hard of hearing residents.
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Frederick would house the first Deaf Center in Maryland.
Rationale
We need:
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Accessibility to activities in our American Sign Language (ASL).
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Accessibility to a variety of services in ASL such as social, references and information sharing.
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A place where we can present educational workshops, career internship and placement.
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A place where the hearing community can learn sign language with Deaf people and join us for workshops, educational and social events.
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A place where individuals wanting to learn to become interpreters can do their internships.
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A place where community theaters, recreation activities and social events can take place.
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A place where referrals can be made to a variety of resources.
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A place where all Maryland counties can utilize.

Members of the Deaf Community are:
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Deaf adults
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Deaf teenagers
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Deaf children and adolescents
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Hearing parents of deaf children
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Hearing children of deaf adults (CODA)
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Late deafened adults
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Deaf Seniors
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Deaf/blind
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Deaf citizens with intellectual challenges
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Hearing friends/families
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Interpreters
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Work study students
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Sign language students
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Sponsors
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Donors