In 1991, Howard Rosenblum volunteered to work with the Chicago Hearing Society to establish Adult Role Models in Education of the Deaf (ARMED) Program. The seeds for the program had been planted a few years before that when Howard visited his junior high school. A deaf student saw Howard conversing with a former teacher using speech and sign language. The teacher introduced Howard to the student and explained to the girl that Howard was Deaf. She couldn’t believe it. When she learned that Howard attended law school, she was stunned. As Howard tried to convince her, he realized that the deaf girl had never seen a Deaf adult.
The experience of that girl is typical. Over 90% of deaf babies are born to hearing parents. The vast majority of those parents are not acquainted with any other Deaf people. At Chicago Hearing Society, Deaf people tell us about growing up without ever meeting a Deaf adult. One young man said that his deafness made him feel “small.” Because he never met a Deaf adult, he assumed that he would never mature to adulthood or perhaps he would die at an early age. Another woman said she assumed her deafness was something she would outgrow. She was shocked to realize, as a teenager, that her deafness would remain throughout her life.
Howard worked with CHS to establish the ARMED Program in order to present deaf and hard of hearing kids with a new world of possibilities. The ARMED Program provides school age children with the opportunity to learn from strong Deaf leaders and assists the children in developing their own career goals.
The program is simple. Deaf adult volunteers visit classrooms with deaf and hard of hearing students and tell the children about themselves. Using language common to all of them – American Sign Language – the volunteers talk about their jobs, how they got the training they needed and the choices they made while growing up that led to their success later in life.
For more information about our CHS Connections Youth and Family Program, contact CHSYouth@anixter.org.
