Direct Service

As all social movements, the Deaf community is able to handle issues on a much larger scale through the internet. However, the internet is a double edged sword. While Deaf people are able to communicate all over the country, the communities on a smaller scale are disappearing. There are less Deaf clubs, churches, and community centers, but the need for those connections is still there. Hearing culture is the same, we tend to know more about people thousands of miles away than we do our next door neighbors. A way to directly service this social issue, as a hearing person and ITP student, would be to volunteer at local Deaf centers, and create Deaf friendly spaces within well established locations. For example, the Sanderson Center is a great way for Deaf individuals to come together for events and resources, and they are always in need of volunteers, but their demographic tends to be older. To serve the younger Deaf community, who are more likely to connect through the internet, having Deaf friendly activities at places that serve the youth would be beneficial. For example a local library, children's museum, movie theater or park are well established places that are open to the public and are there to serve their communities. Activities like this would also give the adults of Deaf or Hard of Hearing children a way to connect.
While establishing a meeting or event in spaces without already well established connections to the Deaf community may seem impossible, it isn't! But as stated earlier, the Sanderson Center is a great way to connect, and they have a wide range of activities such as pickleball, museum tours, and hikes, as shown below:

I researched the Robert Sanderson Community Center for the Deaf through the use of their website. The Sanderson Center hosts the Division of Services of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Their mission states that the Sanderson Center: "Elevates, unifies, and empowers the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deaf/Blind Utahns by building an inclusive community with full communication access, and showing the world what life looks like, free of barriers." They provide resources on a rehabilitation, medical, informational, and social level in a way that is helpful and unintimidating. Deaf individuals need access to interpreters, vocational rehab, ASL classes, and technology training, all of which, and more, the Center provides. The Sanderson Center directly services their community by seeing a need in Utah and filling it: they offer informational sessions, classes, and social groups where Deaf people can get together and learn, or just hang out. I can definitely see myself being involved with the Sanderson Center in the future because of their large impact within the Deaf Community here in Utah. They act as a hub, or Deaf Club, for Salt Lake City in a way that is disappearing.