Statements
Mission
To assist in providing hearing aids to eligible low income adults and (a) improve the quality of their lives, (b) increase the likelihood of their success in educational and employment settings, and (c) improve the effectiveness of their communication with healthcare and other significant professionals.
Background
HEAR Nashville was created in 2010 by five collaborating organizations to share resources and address significant hearing loss issues in low income people in Middle Tennessee. These five organizations include: the Sertoma Club of Nashville, Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center (VBWC), the Audiology section of the Dept of Speech Pathology at Tennessee State University (TSU), Bridges (formerly League for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) and the Nashville Chapter of Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA).
Impact
Graduate students in audiology from area universities staff our central Call Center to screen for eligibility and professional audiologists in the Middle Tennessee area provide clinical hearing evaluations and fittings as needed. Prospective patients may be self-referred although the majority are referred by health clinics in low-income neighborhoods and by area audiologists in the community. Bridges collaborates on educational programs and the Sertoma Club provides financial support for certain logistical costs and some of the application fees for eligible patients. In fiscal year 2022, we accomplished the following: 1) Assisted 55 low-income adults obtain hearing aids. 2) We were able to apply for and secure additional grants to cover our increased costs of the hearing aids. We did not turn away anyone that was qualified for our services due to a lack of funds available. 3) The average age of our clients was 60-79. 4) In our first twelve years of operation, we have provided hearing aids to over 1100 people in 42 counties of Tennessee ranging in age from 18 to 101. Since (a) health insurance generally does not pay for hearing aids, and (b) the lives and opportunities of low-income people, in particular, are adversely affected by hearing loss, we continue to see a strong positive growth in requests for our services. Goals for fiscal year 2023 include expanding our services across the state of Tennessee. We intend also to continue to add to our funding resources as our services continue to grow.
Needs
1) Funds to purchase hearing aids for qualified applicants. We can obtain new, digital hearing aids for $1320 a set (equivalent to a market value of $4,000 to $6000 through 'normal' community resources.) Typically, a donation of $1000 will allow us to obtain hearing aids for one person depending on their particular type of hearing loss. We require our applicant to pay a $300 application fee which goes towards the cost of their hearing aids. 2) Audiologists/Licensed hearing professionals across the state willing to provide services to three to five people each per year as 'community partners' with HEAR Nashville are needed.
CEO Statement
As a largely volunteer organization, ours is a 'virtual' agency. Our board president acts as agency CEO and members of the Sertoma Club of Nashville and various community volunteers help with additional administrative support. Our Executive Director and Call Center team are contracted employees. Clinical services are currently provided by professional audiologists in various locations of middle Tennessee who volunteer their time and clinic resources.
Board Chair Statement
At present, we are a largely volunteer organization with only four contracted employees. Therefore, we depend on the wonderful support of our participating partners for professional time, clinic space and administrative support. It is a wonderful partnership that meets a need not met anywhere else in middle Tennessee (or in most other parts of the country.) We are extremely grateful for the wonderful support of our friends and partners and hope to add more partners as we continue to grow. This program is clearly serving a very important need as evidenced by the continued growth in requests for services by eligible applicants and their representatives. In fact, HEAR Nashville has become a model program as a partnership between agencies with common target populations and has received requests for information and consultation services from entities in several other parts of the country including Alabama, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Georgia. We feel that is a wonderful testimony to the manner in which we are filling a previously unmet need in our community.
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Health Care - Community Health Systems |
| Secondary Category: | - |
| Tertiary Category: | - |
Areas Served
Our primary focus is on middle Tennessee residents, however we are expanding our focus across Tennessee. Limitations are due to a patient not being able to travel to one of our partner audiologists to receive treatment.
| TN |
