Advocacy, Support and Training
The Hands & Voices Advocacy, Support and Training (ASTra) provides parents and professionals with resources that focus specifically on D/HH issues in educational advocacy in the Hands & Voices context: a commitment to unbiased support of families regardless of language and communication approaches used by their children and across the full continuum of educational placement options. Our desire is that every child who is D/HH has the opportunity to achieve their full potential. ASTra content is derived from years of direct advocacy experience working with families in schools, attending advocacy trainings from legal experts, providing trainings, and the Hands & Voices Educational Advocacy Guidebook (©2013).
The purpose of this program is to empower parents with knowledge to make informed decisions and resources to guide them. Caregivers are then able to advocate for their child who is deaf or hard of hearing. We believe that when parents are knowledgeable, they feel comfortable making decisions and advocating for their child which increases engagement in the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) process.
This ASTra advocacy program is free to Louisiana families who have a child with a hearing loss or a suspected hearing loss.
"I learned how to ask questions, be prepared, how to better prepare for IEP/goal writing/ appropriate special considerations to include on IEP."