From the Director - Bethany Colson

It is this time of year when the days get shorter, temperatures get cooler and flowers fade. Summer is officially winding down, but with that, a new school year is in full bloom. Our staff is bustling this time of year as we help students, families and schools assess skills, write goals and implement services for individual deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children according to their needs. In ad-dition, we are gathering DHH teachers from around the state, giving them an opportunity for conversation, updating information and resource sharing.

We are also partnering with the Office of Public Health Performance Management (OPHPM) within ISDH to ramp up our strategic planning process. This process allows us to look back on our accomplishments and on changes within our Center and the state; to look at the present, including our current programming, relationships with other entities, and how we fit within the current needs of our state; and to look forward to priorities we see for our Center based on our past and present evaluations and forecasting.

The strategic planning process will allow us to plan for growth, manage our resources better and give us the best possibility to meet our desired outcomes. Most importantly, it will help deaf and hard of hearing children reach their full potentials. It will be important for us to determine what our state may lack and to assist in resolving any issues so we can create a long-term plan for success. As the process moves forward, we will ask: What is our current state? How does that compare to our desired future? How do we get from now to our desired future? And how will we measure our success? These will guide our investigation and creating of an updated strategic plan.

Our planning process has begun with conversations among our Center staff with OPHPM facilitation. The discussions will expand to our advisory committee and other professionals and families of deaf and hard of hearing children as stakeholders of our Center. We value your participation in this process and will be sending out a survey to receive your feedback and input into planning our future. Thank you in advance for your comments and suggestions. We look forward to continue to serve our state through services, resources and information.