May 17, 2007 Seattle - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded the Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center (HSDC) capital support in the amount of $75,000, and three years of operating support in the amount of $165,000 ($55,00 for each of three years), for a total of $240,000. The grant is in support of HSDC's Learning through Language Campaign, and specifically for the early learning preschool program.

The Learning through Language Campaign early learning preschool program includes the expansion of the Family Preschool (currently in its pilot year and partially funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Boeing Company) for deaf, deaf-blind and hard of hearing children and the start-up of the Speech Language Preschool for children with speech and/or cognitive challenges. In addition, the campaign includes a literacy lab for children, ages three through eighteen, with learning disabilities, facility accessibility improvements and the creation of an endowment to fund uncompensated care for children for years to come.

Celebrating its 70th Anniversary, the Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center, a nonprofit organization, is taking the next step to prepare children in the Puget Sound, ages birth to five, for school success by building out 3,000 square feet of unfinished space in its facility built in 2002 for the new preschools and a literacy lab. The early learning preschool program will provide a continuum of communication services to prepare and keep children with special needs in school.

Incorporated in 1937, the Hearing Speech & Deafness Center's mission is to strengthen community by promoting effective communication. The Center's diagnostic, educational and treatment programs rest on 70 years of understanding the personal and community needs of Deaf, Deaf-Blind, hard of hearing and other communication challenged people, and the changing technologies available to them. HSDC's vision is that all people realize their full communication potential. The Center achieves this by joining direct services with systemic change to create an inclusive and accessible community.

HSDC's comprehensive services span the life cycle (infants through seniors) and include Audiology, Speech, Language & Learning programs and therapy, Early Childhood Education (through the nationally recognized Parent-Infant Program), Advocacy services, and assistive listening technology through the HSDC Store.

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health and giving them chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people -- especially those with the fewest resources -- have access to opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation is led by CEO Patty Stonesifer and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.