The Make the Dash Count Foundation awards $5,000 to the Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center to help youth with disabilities achieve success in school

The Make the Dash Count Foundation has awarded the Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center (HSDC) a grant in the amount of $5,000. The grant is to support HSDC's Deaf Youth Leadership Program.

The Deaf Youth Leadership Program (DYLP) was created to meet the needs of at-risk Deaf students, who are isolated in hearing communities and lack opportunities due to their invisible disability. The DYLP partners with Seattle schools to offer classes that support Deaf youth with culturally competent Deaf role models, focusing on skill development, networking, leadership training, mentoring and volunteer opportunities, helping to ensure that Deaf youth realize their full potential, achieving success in school and in life.

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 over 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 and new Rosen Family Preschool Program), Deaf & Hard of Hearing advocacy services, and assistive listening technology through the HSDC Store.

The "DASH" of the Make the DASH Count Foundation refers to the little horizontal line on our gravestones; the one between the date we are born and the date we pass away. The DASH represents everything in between and how we choose to live it. The vision of the Make the DASH Count Foundation is to create an army of youth philanthropists who will serve as community leaders throughout their lives. The Foundation's mission is to inspire and empower the youth in our communities to become the next generation of philanthropic leaders by actively engaging them in a process of philanthropy that serves young people at risk of not fulfilling their potential.

Founder Hope Moore has always believed that the power to make a difference exists in all of us. In 2003, she established the Make the DASH Count Foundation (a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization) to educate youth, including her own son, in the responsibilities of community leadership and charitable giving. The Foundation operates through community based youth boards comprised of high-school-age youth who serve as stewards of the foundation's grantmaking process, annually awarding grant monies to nonprofit organizations serving at-risk youth.

For complete information, visit www.makethedashcount.com