New Tool for Moving Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth into Post-Secondary Education or the Workforce

by Christopher T. Sutton

In 2009, The Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) received funding from The Counselling Foundation of Canada to undertake its Transitioning Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth to Employment Project. This initiative was launched to develop a tool to aid deaf or hard of hearing students to prepare for the transitional phase from high school to post-secondary education or the workforce. This instrument would also be an asset for parents, caregivers and educators of these students as well as career service professionals who provide services to this client group. During the consultation phase, stakeholders suggested the creation of a central website would be preferable to relying on printed literature or materials. As a result CHS set out to develop a website to serve as a central linkage to the array of services and resources that would facilitate the transition of deaf or hard of hearing students from high school to post-secondary education or the labour market.

The initial tool was tested early 2011. Advice from a select number of schools about the outreach materials and assessment tools was gathered and the youth website was presented to the career services community at Cannexus11 for feedback. Revisions to the content and the website were undertaken while an implementation plan was developed to use this new tool across all CHS offices.

The Canadian Hearing Society is pleased to announce that the implementation phase of the project was completed in January 2012 with the roll-out of the transition and assessment devices and website. CHS is confident that these mechanisms will directly aid deaf or hard of hearing students, as well as their parents, caregivers, educators and career service professionals, prepare for the transitional phase from high school to post-secondary education or the workforce. Please visit the CHS Youth Transition website www.chs.ca/youthtransition to access this wonderful tool!