Bright & Positive Futures

Our early childhood early intervention program Hear for Kids puts families first, wherever they live and whatever their needs. Throughout the uncertainty of COVID-19, we continued delivering comprehensive support for children and those who love them to achieve their communication goals through virtual sessions, flexible scheduling and a variety of support programs.

Your support of the Deaf Lottery helps us continue to reach more families and create bright and positive futures for Deaf and hard of hearing children.

Renee from Atherton in regional Queensland discovered Hear for Kids in 2011, after struggling to find suitable support for her son Kienan. She knew straight away she was making the right decision.

"When we were looking at options, it just didn’t gel with me that many places we tried would just tell kids to talk, without considering how the child wanted to naturally express themselves,” says Renee. We chose Hear for Kids because they allowed Kienan to communicate in the way he naturally did, and build on that.”

Today, Kienan’s three year-old sister Ashlynn also participates in the program, along with seven year-old brother Elysian. Elysian has a diagnosis of autism and has benefited greatly from working alongside his siblings and the Hear for Kids team.

“Having all three kids in the same service is great, because they’ve really gotten to know my family,” Renee says. “For Elysian, learning to communicate through sign language has greatly helped his speech delay, and allowed him to really come out of his shell."

Thank you for creating bright and positive futures.

Did you know that 1 in 6 Australians live with some form of hearing loss?

Deaf Services and the Deaf Society are focused on our commitment to community, leadership, innovation and culture. Supported by the Deaf Lottery, we aim to:

  • Work with individuals and the community to understand and meet their needs.
  • Drive improvements and new opportunities aligned with our Mission and enhancing our sustainability.
  • Develop our influence and position to enhance the capacity of the Deaf community.
  • Enable organisational capability, capacity and readiness.
970 x 400

Your Impact

Deaf Services and the Deaf Society is proud to be Australia’s only largest whole-of-life service provider for the Deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind communities.

An example of one of our vital services is offering exceptional learning and training in Auslan interpreting and education, addressing the ever-growing demand for professionals fluent in the primary language of Deaf Australians.

Our Auslan language education programs enable the wider community to be able to communicate with the Deaf community.

With your support, we can continue to train the next generation of Auslan interpreters and educators and in turn create a better and more inclusive community.

Thanks to your help, last year Deaf Services and the Deaf Society were able to provide increased services to the Deaf and hard of hearing community, including:

  • Responded to over 8,500 general information enquiries
  • Provided over 31,000 hours of support through Lifestyle Support Services
  • Hosted 156 group activities
  • 680 students completed accredited training in Auslan
  • Completed 121 translations projects and 444 translations videos
  • Gained 77 new Ageing Well clients
  • Delivered early intervention services to 343 Hear for Kids participants