Statements
Mission
Our mission is to provide opportunities to empower, educate, and enhance the lives of children, who are deaf or hard of hearing, and encourage, promote, and strengthen family connection.
Background
Hands With Heart was founded by Chris Sandefur, who started as a volunteer in 1990 working with deaf and hard of hearing children in Metro classrooms. She quickly started creating scout troops and worked with the teachers to provide items needed in the classroom. In 1998 she took her passion to the next level and founded Hands With Heart Foundation for Deaf Children, Inc. Hands with Heart provided boy-scout camps specifically for children who were deaf and hard of hearing and continued to support classroom and family needs. The camps allowed children to attain the highest honor and become the first DEAF Eagle Scouts in Tennessee. In 2012, Chris retired and Hands With Heart, although paused from camps, continued to support additional classroom needs in three Metro schools and helped numerous families and children with necessities such as sign language dictionaries, TTY's, bed shakers, door knockers, fire alarms, etc. In 2019, Hands with Heart, under new direction, revived and expanded the camps and created new programming for empowering deaf and hard of hearing youth and their families. We are a 100% volunteer organization with all the of the proceeds going directly towards the children in need.
Impact
Over the years, Hands With Heart, has empowered and impacted countless children and their families. In 2019 we re-established camps for deaf and hard of hearing youth that focus on empowering and educating youth, established the Youth Leadership Team, and continued to provided materials for deaf and hard of hearing classrooms.
We provide three day experiential learning camp that reach twenty students and their families. Students learn over twenty new vocabulary words, learn new leaderships skills, and participate in new life enhancing experiences.
Our Youth Leadership Team was established for young students to participate in planning, fundraising, and budgeting for all of the camps and activities throughout the year. The team voted on a president, vice-president, and treasure. In 2019, the team of eight middle and high school students created and facilitated a fundraiser, which raised $1,300.
Materials were provided for deaf and hard of hearing classrooms in Metro. The deaf and hard of hearing student population requires additional visual learning materials to improve literacy performance. Hands With Heart was able to help three classrooms with additional needs.
Our projected goals for the next year include a three day overnight experiential learning camp during each school break, growth of the Youth Leadership Team in planning and productivity, and expand availability of materials for deaf and hard of hearing youth in their classrooms.
Needs
Hands with Heart is 100% volunteer based, so we are always in need of volunteers who are fluent in American Sign Language and who support our mission. We appreciate individual and corporate donations to support our camps and activities, and we are in need of additional visual classroom materials for our students.
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Youth Development - Youth Development Programs |
| Secondary Category: | Arts, Culture & Humanities - Cultural & Ethnic Awareness |
| Tertiary Category: | Education - Special Education |
Areas Served
| TN - Davidson |
| TN - Rutherford |
| TN - Williamson |
| TN - Wilson |
