Dr. Michele’s Recap – Child’s Voice Staff Travels to Israel
So far away yet so close! Yes, our partnership with Beit MICHA, in Tel Aviv Israel has officially kicked off. The team from Child’s Voice included Principal Wendy Adler, Special Service Coordinator Melissa Lundt, Professional Development Coordinator Wendy Deters, Early Intervention Specialist Tatum Fritz and I, spent a week collaborating with the staff and Leadership team at Beit MICHA.
Child’s Voice is very grateful to our generous donor whom made this a reality. After seeing this amazing program that serves 750 families a year, our donors were inspired and saw how Child’s Voice could collaborate with them.
We met for three full intense days sharing strategies, techniques and program successes. Beit MICHA’s Executive Director, Mr. Roi Pilpel visited Child’s Voice last September. We laid the groundwork for our partnership, and planned to bring some of our staff after the new year. Roi hosted our group. They arranged several seminars presented by the leading experts from their local universities. World-renowned Professor Karen Abraham presented her research on Genetics and Hearing Loss. It was so fascinating. Professor Joseph Attias, Head of the Audiological Unit, Schneider Hospital and MICHA research advisor gave a lecture on The Development of Listening Skills and Dr. Margalit Ziv, addressed Theory of Mind.
Each of our team members presented on our programs at Child’s Voice. One area that Beit MICHA is interested in learning more about, and putting into place, is our data collection. Melissa presented about our data collection and our data repository at Vanderbilt University. Beit MICHA wants to establish a database.
Beit MICHA also has a satellite program in K’far Kasem. This is a hilltop city with an Israeli Arab population. The families served here were open and inviting to our visit.
Without a doubt, our passions are similar. Beit MICHA’S mission is to provide each hard of hearing child with the tools to acquire communication, language and speech skills and to give each child an equal opportunity to develop his or her potential and fully integrate into society.
Child’s Voice mission is to empower children with hearing loss to be successful in all educational and social setting by optimizing their listening, speaking and academic skills.
Our goals are the same. We both change lives. What a wonderful partnership to have with a program on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean!
The staff of Beit MICHA will visit us in the spring hopefully. Our collaboration will be shared in publications as we plan for this joint venture. One article will be a “how-to” on establishing an international relationship.
Please continue to follow us on Facebook. View our trip to Beit MICHA and enjoy!
Fondly,
Dr. Michele
