June 1, 2000
Yachad
B’yachad With Our Way
NJCD to Host
Our Way and Yachad Family Shabbatonim
The
challenges for the deaf and hearing-impaired versus those for the
developmentally disabled may be vastly different, but many of the issues
they deal with and the daily struggles their families face are quite
similar. To address these challenges, the National
Jewish Council for the Disabled, an agency of the Orthodox
Union, will sponsor both the Yachad and the Our
Way Family Shabbatons on Friday-Sunday, June 16-18, at the
Berkeley-Carteret Hotel in Asbury Park, NJ.
Both Yachad and Our Way strive to create communities that provide
socialization, education and camaraderie for these special children and
adults.
Over
the course of the weekend, the two divisions of the NJCD will address
diversified themes. The focus
of Our Way, which serves the needs of the Jewish deaf and hearing
impaired, will be communication, sensitivity, socialization and inclusion.
Unlike the developmentally disabled, who, through Yachad and other
similar programs, are often mainstreamed
into society, the Jewish deaf often grow up in communities where they are
isolated, never having met another Jewish deaf child.
This Shabbaton will provide the first opportunity for these
youngsters to make friends with other deaf children and to become pen pals
via email. The younger children are also paired up with older kids who act
as big brothers and big sisters. The
younger ones learn an important message: they are not alone.
The
programming also hopes to teach the hearing to carry a certain sensitivity
toward the non-hearing. Experts will talk to parents and siblings about
the issues and frustrations that their deaf relatives experience.
Topics will include: the discomfort of having to ask people to
repeat themselves again and again; the controversy regarding the use of
using different modes of communication, such as oral versus sign language;
and dealing with the sometimes disheartening
fact that much of what is being said is often missed.
The
emphasis of the Yachad Family Shabbaton, (Yachad, the NJCD flagship
division that serves the needs of the developmentally disabled), will be
facilitating and encouraging, independence, self determination and self
advocacy. For many Yachad members, inclusion is already a given.
The focus of the weekend is to help Yachad members to integrate
within the larger community by living on their own in group homes,
accessing and maintaining a job (through the NJCD’s Division of
Vocational Resources) and learning how to advocate for their own needs.
With more than 35 chapters
throughout the United States and Canada, the NJCD, an agency of the
Orthodox Union, is the only national resource center providing specialized
guidance and information as well as direct services to those in the Jewish
community who have special needs. Yachad, a division of the NJCD, provides
a wide range of social, recreational and religious programs, serving well
over 1,500 children and adults with developmental
disabilities.
Established
in 1969, Our Way is the only Jewish movement reaching out to the deaf and
hearing impaired across the country and bridging the gap between the
hearing and non-hearing worlds. Through a vast array of programs including
Shabbatonim, holiday celebrations, a deaf
singles registry, Torah study groups, summer tours, family retreats,
conventions and special signing publications, Our Way provides spiritual
and social opportunities for nearly 1,000 deaf across the country.
The Orthodox Union, now in its
second century of service to the Jewish
community of America and beyond, is the world leader in youth
work, advocacy for the disabled,
synagogue services, adult
education and political action.
Its kosher supervision
label, the
 , is the world’s most
recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 250,000 products in 68
countries around the globe.
###
www.ou.org
Comments?
Requests? Questions?
 Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations
of America
Department of Public Relations
Sharyn Perlman, Director
Main Office:
11 Broadway, New York, NY 10004
Phone: 212-613-8321 Fax: 212-564-9058
E-mail: media@ou.org |
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