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Inside Gallaudet - Gallaudet University
America’s deaf youth are “brilliant, technological savvy, and burning up with potential, ideas, and passion,” says Gallaudet graduate Melissa Malzkuhn. As of yet, however, this demographic has no national organization. That is why, this July, she will help launch Deaf Youth USA (DYUSA) with a gathering in Bayou Segnette State Park, La., July 3 to 7, prior to the biennial National Association of the Deaf (NAD) conference. This event will harness the energy of up to 200 individuals representing 47,000 deaf youth and, she hopes, set in motion a new youth movement.
“We'll have forums, discussions and workshops,” Malzkuhn said, that will cover “politics, issues and advocacy work (what can we do, what do we want to do), and youth activism (how, why, and what tools), to media (how we can utilitize it as a tool), and international opportunities, to the future/direction of DYUSA.”
The idea for DYUSA began on an overnight train from Madrid to Lisbon last summer. Malzkuhn and her sister, Megan, were coming away from the 15th World Federation of the Deaf World Congress and, she recalls, both were “buzzing with amazement of what we saw, learned, and felt.” Soon after, Malzkuhn contacted a group of people she knew could take on a project like creating a new organization. They became the DYUSA committee. At about the same time, Malzkuhn began a deaf studies master’s thesis entitled “Deaf Youth in America: A Missing 47,000.”
Why 47,000? “Ross Mitchell of GRI [the Gallaudet Research Institute] did demographics on the population of deaf people in America,” Malzkuhn explained. “I took the information from him and figured it out from 18 to 30 and came to this number. This is people who identified themselves as deaf.”
Research for the thesis included finding what was already out there. Malzkuhn identified 33 European organizations for deaf young people, including the European Union of the Deaf Youth, the Swedish Deaf Youth Association, and the Danish Deaf Youth Association.
In the United States, there are numerous youth organizations like the National Youth Rights Association, Youth Rights Media, and Black Youth Vote. But there was no national organization for that skilled, energetic group of 47,000 who she says are “between” Jr. NAD and youth camps on one side and the NAD on the other.
Dovetailing research, inspiration, and action, Malzkuhn and her committee began planning a kick-off event. The committee has reached out with methods familiar to their peers, including vlogs, a Facebook site, and email blasts. They are betting that if they reach them, they will come.
The rest, Malzkuhn says, it is up to the participants. “We all agreed we would only help establish DYUSA and the event,” she said, “but the exact vision, future, direction, structure--all the inner workings--remain open and will be decided by a collective voice this summer.”
Participants are signing up with high hopes for the new voice of deaf youth in America. "I want to see a cohesive voice from DYUSA that responds to issues immediate to people our age,” wrote one registrant. “DYUSA is like a conductor--it conducts heat, light, sound, and electricity between the voice of youth and the greater world.”
Pre-registration for the Deaf Youth USA gathering is open until June 15. More information is available at DYUSA - Deaf Youth USA, and at the DYUSA Facebook group.
America’s deaf youth are “brilliant, technological savvy, and burning up with potential, ideas, and passion,” says Gallaudet graduate Melissa Malzkuhn. As of yet, however, this demographic has no national organization. That is why, this July, she will help launch Deaf Youth USA (DYUSA) with a gathering in Bayou Segnette State Park, La., July 3 to 7, prior to the biennial National Association of the Deaf (NAD) conference. This event will harness the energy of up to 200 individuals representing 47,000 deaf youth and, she hopes, set in motion a new youth movement.
“We'll have forums, discussions and workshops,” Malzkuhn said, that will cover “politics, issues and advocacy work (what can we do, what do we want to do), and youth activism (how, why, and what tools), to media (how we can utilitize it as a tool), and international opportunities, to the future/direction of DYUSA.”
The idea for DYUSA began on an overnight train from Madrid to Lisbon last summer. Malzkuhn and her sister, Megan, were coming away from the 15th World Federation of the Deaf World Congress and, she recalls, both were “buzzing with amazement of what we saw, learned, and felt.” Soon after, Malzkuhn contacted a group of people she knew could take on a project like creating a new organization. They became the DYUSA committee. At about the same time, Malzkuhn began a deaf studies master’s thesis entitled “Deaf Youth in America: A Missing 47,000.”
Why 47,000? “Ross Mitchell of GRI [the Gallaudet Research Institute] did demographics on the population of deaf people in America,” Malzkuhn explained. “I took the information from him and figured it out from 18 to 30 and came to this number. This is people who identified themselves as deaf.”
Research for the thesis included finding what was already out there. Malzkuhn identified 33 European organizations for deaf young people, including the European Union of the Deaf Youth, the Swedish Deaf Youth Association, and the Danish Deaf Youth Association.
In the United States, there are numerous youth organizations like the National Youth Rights Association, Youth Rights Media, and Black Youth Vote. But there was no national organization for that skilled, energetic group of 47,000 who she says are “between” Jr. NAD and youth camps on one side and the NAD on the other.
Dovetailing research, inspiration, and action, Malzkuhn and her committee began planning a kick-off event. The committee has reached out with methods familiar to their peers, including vlogs, a Facebook site, and email blasts. They are betting that if they reach them, they will come.
The rest, Malzkuhn says, it is up to the participants. “We all agreed we would only help establish DYUSA and the event,” she said, “but the exact vision, future, direction, structure--all the inner workings--remain open and will be decided by a collective voice this summer.”
Participants are signing up with high hopes for the new voice of deaf youth in America. "I want to see a cohesive voice from DYUSA that responds to issues immediate to people our age,” wrote one registrant. “DYUSA is like a conductor--it conducts heat, light, sound, and electricity between the voice of youth and the greater world.”
Pre-registration for the Deaf Youth USA gathering is open until June 15. More information is available at DYUSA - Deaf Youth USA, and at the DYUSA Facebook group.