19th ANNUAL EARLY HEARING DETECTION & INTERVENTION MEETING
March 8-10, 2020 • Kansas City, MO

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3/10/2020  |   3:00 PM - 3:30 PM   |  Tracking Success: Benefits of High Quality Analytics in the Non-Profit Family Services Setting   |  Chouteau B

Tracking Success: Benefits of High Quality Analytics in the Non-Profit Family Services Setting

Minnesota Hands and Voices is a non-profit organization that provides unbiased peer support to families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. As such, we are uniquely positioned to ensure that all families are aware of their options regarding communication, technology, and educational support. As advocates, we dutifully contact all referred families regardless of any mitigating circumstances or background. However, family engagement can vary significantly according to socioeconomic, racial, linguistic, and cultural factors. How can we, as advocates, best mitigate these discrepancies? Here, we aim to illustrate our organizations utilization of data analytics to better quantify our level of service and identify gaps in service provision. Importantly, our development of interactive analytical tools can provide concrete guides in improving our protocols to better support families. Here, we show how we have used these tools to evaluate and improve our current approaches for reaching 1) rural communities, and 2) Non-English and multilingual households. We highlight that data analytic approaches are well-suited to family-based, not-for-profit services, and can provide targeted insights leading to actionable improvement.

  • Non-profit organizations can benefit from using data analytical approaches to improve service equity and reach
  • We have developed tools to assess the accessibility of our services in rural communities
  • Culturally-specific approaches have improved our engagement with families belonging to minority language groups

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Presenters/Authors

Brenda Hommerding (), MNHV, Brenda.Hommerding@lssmn.org;
Brenda Hommerding lives in Rice, Minnesota with her husband, Lynn. They are parents of twin girls that are now adults. The girls along with Brenda cover the whole spectrum of high frequency sensorineural hearing difference from mild to profound. Brenda also has two grandsons that are profoundly deaf. Brenda is currently working with the Minnesota Commission service Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing individuals to evaluate the statewide system of dissemination materials for families with children Grade 5 through 8. Brenda has served as a member and then the co-chair of Minnesota's Department of Human Services, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Advisory Board (Central Division) for 10 years. In 2017 Brenda received the Miss Congeniality Award. In 2019 she completed the first Leadership-to-Leadership Program from National Hands & Voices. In 2022, Brenda and her chapter received the Data Geek award at the National Hands & Voices Leadership Conference. Her passion to collaborate with community stakeholders has been instrumental in connecting families with their parent guides and deaf/hard of hearing guides.


ASHA DISCLOSURE:

Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exist.

Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.

Sonya Giridhar (), MN Hands & Voices, sonyag@lifetrack-mn.org;
Sonya Giridhar received her Ph.D in neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh, where she focused on the computational role of inhibitory interneurons in sensory processing. More recently, she became a parent to a bright and wonderful child who is hard of hearing. Sonya’s recent projects have focused on utilizing her creative and computational skills to support families and celebrate children. This has included creating family-centered educational content in collaboration with the Children’s Communication Center at the University of California, San Francisco, and publishing a children’s book about assistive listening devices in the classroom setting. At Minnesota Hand & Voices, she handles database design and management, as well as analytics. Her main interest is in using analytical techniques to improve services, guide decision-making, and support families.


ASHA DISCLOSURE:

Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exist.

Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.