Deaf youth often spend their days surrounded by adults and fellow children who don’t share their language.
This isolates them and hinders their ability to grow and learn, according to Cecilia Klassen, the executive director of Family Network for Deaf Children. That’s why the organization’s annual Deaf Youth Today camps in Burnaby and on Hornby Island are so important.
“It’s an empowering camp for deaf children,” she said.
But a funding shortfall may shrink the camps on offer this summer and could threaten their existence in the future, she said. Last year, 242 children registered in six weeks of programs in July and August. There were five day camps in Burnaby and a weeklong overnight camp on Hornby. All staff are fluent in American Sign Language, which cannot be found in any other camp in B.C.
Klassen said about half of the deaf and hard-of-hearing children have additional special needs, including autism, blindness and the need for wheelchairs and feeding tubes. This means many require one-on-one care from counsellors, making the camps far more expensive to run than most other summer camps.
The camps also provide employment to older deaf youth as counsellors, many of whom are former campers themselves, she said.
The bulk of funding for Deaf Youth Today comes from the Ministry of Children and Family Development, but FNDC is left to raise an additional $65,000 from donations and grants to cover its costs.
“This year (fundraising) has just been really, really hard, and I don’t know why,” Klassen said.
She said she will likely have to dip into the charity’s emergency fund in order to go ahead with scheduled camps this year.
“I can’t cancel on these kids who know there’s a summer program,” she said.
Next year’s camps could be cancelled or severely cut back if FNDC doesn’t find new money, she said. Klassen said she hopes a philanthropic foundation steps up to provide sustainable annual funding.
She said FNDC has received one-time grants from larger foundations, but those organizations don’t give annually because they don’t want FNDC to depend on them for their budget. “But the irony is children with special needs depend on society for access and inclusion.”
Donations can be made at FNDC.ca/donation.
