ST INS CARES-The Sally J Pimentel Deaf and Hard of Hearing Center: Supporting a Vital Community Need
September 17, 2025 • 16 mins
Did you know there's only one nonprofit deaf service center between Tampa and Miami? The Sally J Pimentel Deaf and Hard of Hearing Center stands as a critical lifeline serving deaf and hard of hearing individuals across five Florida counties, addressing challenges that many of us never consider.
Executive Director Amy Turner takes us behind the scenes of this vital organization, revealing the extensive range of services they provide. From amplified phones that help seniors hear their doctors and grandchildren, to youth mentoring programs in schools, to specialized support groups for deaf women facing crises—their work touches lives in profound ways. Turner explains how everyday conveniences like drive-thrus present impossible barriers for deaf individuals, highlighting the often-invisible challenges faced by this community.
The episode clarifies important ADA requirements for businesses serving deaf clients. As Turner emphasizes, providing interpreters isn't about offering translation services for another language—it's about ensuring accessibility for individuals with disabilities. The center helps facilitate these connections while also training first responders and businesses on effective communication with deaf individuals. Their work with Lee County's emergency operations has been crucial in ensuring deaf residents receive life-saving information during hurricanes and other emergencies.
Want to support this essential community resource? Visit www.dhhclife.org to learn how you can help the center continue and expand their critical services. Whether you're a business owner looking to improve accessibility or someone interested in learning sign language, the Sally J Pimentel Deaf and Hard of Hearing Center welcomes your support and involvement.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Center SWFL
Amy Turner-Executive Director
1860 Boy Scout Drive, Fort Myers, FL 33907
(239) 461-0334
(239) 247-5821 (Video Phone)
info@dhhc.life
dhhc.life
State Insurance USA
4450 Camino Real Way
Ft Myers, FL 33966
239-567-9992
100 Lovers Ln 3rd Floor
Ft Myers Beach, FL 33931
(239) 690-6300
office@StateInsuranceUSA.com
stateinsuranceusa.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to State Insurance USA Cares podcast,
where we celebrate the heart ofour communities.
Each episode, we highlightlocal charities and nonprofits
who are bringing hope, help andhealing to those who need it
most.
Get ready to be inspired by theamazing stories of people
making a difference, becausetogether we care.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well, hey, it's Gail Langner with State Insurance,
USA State Insurance Cares backagain today.
I am thrilled to have my friendAmy Turner with us today.
She is the Executive Directorat the Sally J Pimentel Deaf and
Hard of Hearing Center in FortMyers and, Amy, thanks so much
for taking some time out of yourvery busy day to tell us a
(00:43):
little bit about the Deaf andHard of Hearing Center.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Well, thank you very much, Gail.
I am thrilled to be here and Iam very excited to share about
some of the you know wonderfulthings that we're doing in the
community to help with deaf andhard of hearing individuals.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well, that is actually Amy and I both belong
to an organization called theAmerican Business Women's
Association, so we see eachother a lot.
In fact, we'll be seeing eachother this evening for dinner,
but she actually did apresentation not too long ago
that I wanted our listeners tohear.
And so, Amy, first of all, I'mjust out of pure curiosity.
(01:20):
I've always wondered who isSally J Pimentel, or who was she
.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Well, Sally J Pimentel was a very active
client who used to come to ourcenter and sadly, she passed
away in 2018.
But she was beloved by all andshe was extremely active.
She provided such comfort toothers.
She was a friend to everyoneand in 2019, her husband, Al,
(01:49):
gifted our center a large giftin memoriam to honor Sally's
legacy and from that moment, wechanged our name to the Sally J
Pimentel Deaf and Hard ofHearing Center.
I love that we can honor her.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Okay, well, I always wondered and never really asked.
So tell everyone, amy, what youdo there.
I know, oh my gosh, the scopeis huge.
I mean, I know that, but you'reright off from Boy Scout and
you have a beautiful facilitythere.
What does your day-to-day looklike?
(02:26):
What does that entail?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Well, we are.
If you can picture a map of thestate of Florida, we are the
only non-profit deaf servicecenter between Tampa and Miami,
so it's a very large territory.
So anyone who is deaf or hardof hearing who needs those
resources or support, we're itand we serve a very specific
(02:49):
niche of clientele and they needour services desperately.
So we provide those services.
If somebody needs some support,if they need a support group,
we offer a youth developmentprogram.
We go into the schools and weprovide mentoring to deaf
children.
We provide so many services forhard of hearing.
(03:12):
We provide amplified phones forseniors who are going through
age-related hearing loss so thatthey can hear their pharmacist
or their doctor or theirgrandchildren.
Again, if a regular phone ringsat 25 decibels, the phones that
we give away for free to peoplethat are hard of hearing, they
ring at 50 decibels and that's alife changer.
(03:33):
We offer many, many serviceslike that mentoring, one-on-one,
anything you could think ofdeaf related we provide it.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Do you do any sign language classes at all?
Like what, if I wanted to takea sign language class, would?
You offer something like that.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
We absolutely do.
We provide sign languageclasses four nights a week and
on Zoom, and we offer it in fiveor six locations.
Now we have a class in PortCharlotte here at our center in
Fort Myers, we have one inLehigh Acres, Bonita Springs and
one out in Naples.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Wow, I had no idea.
Is that volunteer driven, isthat?
Or who teaches the classes?
Speaker 3 (04:12):
We have paid deaf instructors.
Actually, one of them is avolunteer out in Naples, but
other than that, they're allpaid deaf instructors.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Okay, all right.
So let's say, okay, I work forstate insurance.
As you know what, if I have adeaf client and they want to
come in and look over theirpolicy, I think that it is up to
me at state insurance toprovide an interpreter.
(04:44):
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Well, you are correct in the sense that the business
is responsible for providing theaccommodations for an
individual with a disability.
That is under ADA law.
So, depending on what the deafindividual is requesting, that
is the most effective form ofcommunication for them Not for
(05:09):
you, but for them.
So that could be.
Maybe they could get along withwriting a note back and forth.
That might work for them.
So it's something to ask.
But if they in fact request alive interpreter, then yes, it
is your responsibility toprovide, and any business's
responsibility to provide, thatinterpreter.
(05:29):
It's an accommodation.
And this is where some peopleget tripped up because they
might think, well, I don'tprovide a translator or an
interpreter in another language,I just don't do that with my
business.
Right?
It's different when you view itthat way, because that's not
(05:51):
what they're asking.
They're asking for anaccommodation for their
disability.
If you provide the service to ahearing individual, then you
need to provide the service to adeaf individual and if, by
doing so, they require thataccommodation.
So, for example, if you had aperson who was blind come in and
they needed to take a writtentest, you wouldn't say to them
(06:13):
I'm sorry, but we don't providethat in Braille, take it anyway,
you would not say that.
You understand, you need toprovide the test in Braille.
It's very similar with deafness, but deafness is sort of an
invisible disability.
So sometimes we hearing people,it's hard to wrap our head
around that and we think, oh,it's another language, we don't
(06:34):
do that.
Nope, it's an accommodation foran individual with a disability
.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I understand so you provide interpreters.
Is that correct?
If I know that I have a clientcoming in next week and I'm
going to need an interpreter,could I reach out to you, to
your organization, and apply forsomeone to come help me, or how
would that work?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Absolutely yes, we do provide interpreting services,
and there's four ways that youcan reach out to us.
You can go on our website andthere's an interpreter request
form, which is the quickest andeasiest way.
Or on our website, we have aphone number listed.
You can just text us and say,hey, I need an interpreter.
Or you can call us, or you cansend us an email direct and we
(07:18):
can provide that interpreter.
We'll coordinate theappointment with you.
Or we can also provide videointerpreting.
Just depends on what you'relooking for.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Okay, so the community really needs to know
that you have this awesomeaccommodation.
I'm sure you're out there inthe community letting people
know that you're there and allthe wonderful things that you
provide.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
We do, and thank you for mentioning that, because
this morning we were justfinishing up our three day in a
row training that we providedand we trained the entire, every
single firefighter for the cityof Fort Myers Fire Department
and we were in and out in anhour.
We provide basic sign languagewords for their business
(08:10):
pertaining to you know firstresponders on call, and then we
also taught a little bit aboutADA law and what's required, and
we taught about you know how tointeract with a deaf person,
what to look for, how do yourecognize a deaf person and what
can you do, and so we providethat training to any business
for free, anywhere here in thefive-county area.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Wow, that's incredible.
Well, that has to cost you alot of money.
I know you're a nonprofit.
Is it all fundraising?
Is that the way that you gathermost of your funds to run your
business?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Three-quarters of our funding comes from grants.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
And the rest of our funding comes from interpreting
services and sign languageclasses and fundraising.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yes, and, and we are extremely, extremely grateful
for people and businesses thathave recognized what how
important our services are toother people in the community,
and without that support wewould not be able to do what we
do.
And because of generous donorslike you Blake Chapman from
(09:26):
State Insurance USA Because ofdonations and supporters like
that, we are able to offer ourdeaf youth program to deaf
children.
We're able to provide supportgroups to deaf women, and these
things are so crucial, like.
I'll tell you something, gailif you or I we're hearing people
(09:47):
if we were going through somesort of a crisis and we had some
sort of issues that we'redealing with mentally, we could
walk into any local church.
Right now, we could just get inthe car and go drive to any
local church.
We could pick up the phone andmake an appointment with a
counselor.
And that is not the case with adeaf woman.
(10:08):
A deaf woman has to have aninterpreter.
They have to find a counselorthat is going to provide that
interpreter for them.
If they walked into a church,unless somebody there knows sign
language, they're not going tobe able to help them or
understand what they're goingthrough, and we provide a
support group just for thatpurpose.
(10:28):
And it's because of thosefunders that make that happen.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Right, that's incredible.
I know that when you did thepresentation for American
Business Women's Association,you told the story about the gal
that ran to Panera or toStarbucks.
Would you tell our listenersabout that?
Sure.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Sure, it was about six months ago.
There was a coworker here at myoffice and she's deaf, and she
popped her head into my officeand she signed hey, I'm going to
run to Panera, you know, acrossthe street, I'm hungry.
Are you hungry, do you wantanything?
And I signed back yeah, youknow what, get me a sandwich and
I'll have a cup of soup.
So she left.
You know she should be back inabout 10, 15 minutes and you
(11:10):
know, 30 minutes later I'mthinking where is she?
Why is she not back yet?
So she comes back and I'm likewhere were you?
I don't understand, it's justright across the street.
And she said Amy, I'm deaf.
And of course I asked thequestion again, not
understanding what that hadanything to do with it.
And what she said was I'm deaf,I can't go through the
(11:33):
drive-thru.
And I paused, and I was notthinking about the 30 minutes
that it took her to go do it.
What I was thinking in my headwas my goodness, how many times
have I gone through a drive-thruin the last 20 years with my
children?
Or how many times have I driventhrough Starbucks because it's
raining outside and, just forconvenience sake, went through
(11:55):
the drive-thru?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
And a deaf person cannot do that because of the
way it's set up and working hereat a deaf center.
Unless I worked here, I wouldnot have known something like
that.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Right.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I would not have realized the barriers that exist
in everyday life, that deafpeople face.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I know you talked about hurricane preparedness and
so on too.
Didn't you say something aboutwhen they send the announcements
out to evacuate and all of that?
Weren't you talking?
About that as well.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Yes, and I will tell you.
So.
It's extremely important fordeaf individuals to have that
on-screen interpreter duringimportant public communications
like press conferences, forevacuations, especially
mandatory evacuations, or forpublic safety.
And I am so excited because weare extremely lucky that Lee
(12:56):
County here, their Lee Countygovernment and Lee County
emergency operations they havestarted a Ready Lee Resilience
Movement where they're includingagencies like ours to have a
seat at the table so that theycan improve those things to make
sure that an interpreter isprovided, to make sure that
(13:17):
communication is happening sothat a deaf person can be
alerted that there's a boilwater notice in their
neighborhood after the hurricane.
They're working on ways for,you know, you can now text to
911 things that were you knowcouldn't be done before.
It was only a phone call, right.
(13:37):
So, yeah, we're extremely luckythat we're part of that
partnership and thatcollaboration to improve public
safety and we're working on thatnow.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I'm so glad to hear that, especially after Ian and
everything that we went throughhere in Fort Myers Beach and in
Lee County, I'm thrilled to hearthat that is on the horizon.
So just to wrap up, amy, if youcould name one thing that you
probably need more than anything, what would it be?
(14:06):
How can we help?
How can everyone help?
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Well, I appreciate that.
You know, because of the factthat we're a very small
nonprofit agency, we have fiveindividuals working for us and
we're responsible for fivecounties.
So funding, funding, funding,Funding is always an issue,
especially with funds comingfrom government grants that are
(14:33):
unstable.
Right now, we absolutely canuse funding, so we are looking
for board members that are ableto help us connect to people
with funds, and that would be abig thing for us.
That would be a game changer tobe able to continue to serve and
expand our services, which areso critically needed right now.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
What's the best way to reach you, Amy?
Speaker 3 (14:57):
You can reach me through our website, which is
www.
dhhc.
life.
L-i-f.
As in Frank E, that's ourinitials of Deaf and Hard of
Hearing Center.
Dhhclife.
L-i-f.
As in Frank E, that's ourinitials of Deaf and Hard of
Hearing Center dhhclife.
Or you can email me directly atamyturner A-M-Y-T-U-R-N-E-R at
(15:18):
dhhc.
life.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Amy, I know you're a busy gal and I appreciate you
taking the time out today totell everyone around you and
about you and what you do, and Iappreciate you being such a
dear friend and all you do.
So I will see you later, thanks.
Thanks for joining me today.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Right back at you.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
All right, take care Bye.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Thank you for joining us on State Insurance USA Cares
.
We hope today's story upliftedand inspired you If you'd like
to support or learn more aboutthe incredible Bye.
Welcome to State Insurance USA Cares podcast,
where we celebrate the heart ofour communities.
Each episode, we highlightlocal charities and nonprofits
who are bringing hope, help andhealing to those who need it
most.
Get ready to be inspired by theamazing stories of people
making a difference, becausetogether we care.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well, hey, it's Gail Langner with State Insurance,
USA State Insurance Cares backagain today.
I am thrilled to have my friendAmy Turner with us today.
She is the Executive Directorat the Sally J Pimentel Deaf and
Hard of Hearing Center in FortMyers and, Amy, thanks so much
for taking some time out of yourvery busy day to tell us a
(00:43):
little bit about the Deaf andHard of Hearing Center.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Well, thank you very much, Gail.
I am thrilled to be here and Iam very excited to share about
some of the you know wonderfulthings that we're doing in the
community to help with deaf andhard of hearing individuals.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well, that is actually Amy and I both belong
to an organization called theAmerican Business Women's
Association, so we see eachother a lot.
In fact, we'll be seeing eachother this evening for dinner,
but she actually did apresentation not too long ago
that I wanted our listeners tohear.
And so, Amy, first of all, I'mjust out of pure curiosity.
(01:20):
I've always wondered who isSally J Pimentel, or who was she
.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Well, Sally J Pimentel was a very active
client who used to come to ourcenter and sadly, she passed
away in 2018.
But she was beloved by all andshe was extremely active.
She provided such comfort toothers.
She was a friend to everyoneand in 2019, her husband, Al,
(01:49):
gifted our center a large giftin memoriam to honor Sally's
legacy and from that moment, wechanged our name to the Sally J
Pimentel Deaf and Hard ofHearing Center.
I love that we can honor her.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Okay, well, I always wondered and never really asked.
So tell everyone, amy, what youdo there.
I know, oh my gosh, the scopeis huge.
I mean, I know that, but you'reright off from Boy Scout and
you have a beautiful facilitythere.
What does your day-to-day looklike?
(02:26):
What does that entail?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Well, we are.
If you can picture a map of thestate of Florida, we are the
only non-profit deaf servicecenter between Tampa and Miami,
so it's a very large territory.
So anyone who is deaf or hardof hearing who needs those
resources or support, we're itand we serve a very specific
(02:49):
niche of clientele and they needour services desperately.
So we provide those services.
If somebody needs some support,if they need a support group,
we offer a youth developmentprogram.
We go into the schools and weprovide mentoring to deaf
children.
We provide so many services forhard of hearing.
(03:12):
We provide amplified phones forseniors who are going through
age-related hearing loss so thatthey can hear their pharmacist
or their doctor or theirgrandchildren.
Again, if a regular phone ringsat 25 decibels, the phones that
we give away for free to peoplethat are hard of hearing, they
ring at 50 decibels and that's alife changer.
(03:33):
We offer many, many serviceslike that mentoring, one-on-one,
anything you could think ofdeaf related we provide it.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Do you do any sign language classes at all?
Like what, if I wanted to takea sign language class, would?
You offer something like that.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
We absolutely do.
We provide sign languageclasses four nights a week and
on Zoom, and we offer it in fiveor six locations.
Now we have a class in PortCharlotte here at our center in
Fort Myers, we have one inLehigh Acres, Bonita Springs and
one out in Naples.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Wow, I had no idea.
Is that volunteer driven, isthat?
Or who teaches the classes?
Speaker 3 (04:12):
We have paid deaf instructors.
Actually, one of them is avolunteer out in Naples, but
other than that, they're allpaid deaf instructors.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Okay, all right.
So let's say, okay, I work forstate insurance.
As you know what, if I have adeaf client and they want to
come in and look over theirpolicy, I think that it is up to
me at state insurance toprovide an interpreter.
(04:44):
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Well, you are correct in the sense that the business
is responsible for providing theaccommodations for an
individual with a disability.
That is under ADA law.
So, depending on what the deafindividual is requesting, that
is the most effective form ofcommunication for them Not for
(05:09):
you, but for them.
So that could be.
Maybe they could get along withwriting a note back and forth.
That might work for them.
So it's something to ask.
But if they in fact request alive interpreter, then yes, it
is your responsibility toprovide, and any business's
responsibility to provide, thatinterpreter.
(05:29):
It's an accommodation.
And this is where some peopleget tripped up because they
might think, well, I don'tprovide a translator or an
interpreter in another language,I just don't do that with my
business.
Right?
It's different when you view itthat way, because that's not
(05:51):
what they're asking.
They're asking for anaccommodation for their
disability.
If you provide the service to ahearing individual, then you
need to provide the service to adeaf individual and if, by
doing so, they require thataccommodation.
So, for example, if you had aperson who was blind come in and
they needed to take a writtentest, you wouldn't say to them
(06:13):
I'm sorry, but we don't providethat in Braille, take it anyway,
you would not say that.
You understand, you need toprovide the test in Braille.
It's very similar with deafness, but deafness is sort of an
invisible disability.
So sometimes we hearing people,it's hard to wrap our head
around that and we think, oh,it's another language, we don't
(06:34):
do that.
Nope, it's an accommodation foran individual with a disability
.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I understand so you provide interpreters.
Is that correct?
If I know that I have a clientcoming in next week and I'm
going to need an interpreter,could I reach out to you, to
your organization, and apply forsomeone to come help me, or how
would that work?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Absolutely yes, we do provide interpreting services,
and there's four ways that youcan reach out to us.
You can go on our website andthere's an interpreter request
form, which is the quickest andeasiest way.
Or on our website, we have aphone number listed.
You can just text us and say,hey, I need an interpreter.
Or you can call us, or you cansend us an email direct and we
(07:18):
can provide that interpreter.
We'll coordinate theappointment with you.
Or we can also provide videointerpreting.
Just depends on what you'relooking for.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Okay, so the community really needs to know
that you have this awesomeaccommodation.
I'm sure you're out there inthe community letting people
know that you're there and allthe wonderful things that you
provide.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
We do, and thank you for mentioning that, because
this morning we were justfinishing up our three day in a
row training that we providedand we trained the entire, every
single firefighter for the cityof Fort Myers Fire Department
and we were in and out in anhour.
We provide basic sign languagewords for their business
(08:10):
pertaining to you know firstresponders on call, and then we
also taught a little bit aboutADA law and what's required, and
we taught about you know how tointeract with a deaf person,
what to look for, how do yourecognize a deaf person and what
can you do, and so we providethat training to any business
for free, anywhere here in thefive-county area.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Wow, that's incredible.
Well, that has to cost you alot of money.
I know you're a nonprofit.
Is it all fundraising?
Is that the way that you gathermost of your funds to run your
business?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Three-quarters of our funding comes from grants.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
And the rest of our funding comes from interpreting
services and sign languageclasses and fundraising.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yes, and, and we are extremely, extremely grateful
for people and businesses thathave recognized what how
important our services are toother people in the community,
and without that support wewould not be able to do what we
do.
And because of generous donorslike you Blake Chapman from
(09:26):
State Insurance USA Because ofdonations and supporters like
that, we are able to offer ourdeaf youth program to deaf
children.
We're able to provide supportgroups to deaf women, and these
things are so crucial, like.
I'll tell you something, gailif you or I we're hearing people
(09:47):
if we were going through somesort of a crisis and we had some
sort of issues that we'redealing with mentally, we could
walk into any local church.
Right now, we could just get inthe car and go drive to any
local church.
We could pick up the phone andmake an appointment with a
counselor.
And that is not the case with adeaf woman.
(10:08):
A deaf woman has to have aninterpreter.
They have to find a counselorthat is going to provide that
interpreter for them.
If they walked into a church,unless somebody there knows sign
language, they're not going tobe able to help them or
understand what they're goingthrough, and we provide a
support group just for thatpurpose.
(10:28):
And it's because of thosefunders that make that happen.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Right, that's incredible.
I know that when you did thepresentation for American
Business Women's Association,you told the story about the gal
that ran to Panera or toStarbucks.
Would you tell our listenersabout that?
Sure.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Sure, it was about six months ago.
There was a coworker here at myoffice and she's deaf, and she
popped her head into my officeand she signed hey, I'm going to
run to Panera, you know, acrossthe street, I'm hungry.
Are you hungry, do you wantanything?
And I signed back yeah, youknow what, get me a sandwich and
I'll have a cup of soup.
So she left.
You know she should be back inabout 10, 15 minutes and you
(11:10):
know, 30 minutes later I'mthinking where is she?
Why is she not back yet?
So she comes back and I'm likewhere were you?
I don't understand, it's justright across the street.
And she said Amy, I'm deaf.
And of course I asked thequestion again, not
understanding what that hadanything to do with it.
And what she said was I'm deaf,I can't go through the
(11:33):
drive-thru.
And I paused, and I was notthinking about the 30 minutes
that it took her to go do it.
What I was thinking in my headwas my goodness, how many times
have I gone through a drive-thruin the last 20 years with my
children?
Or how many times have I driventhrough Starbucks because it's
raining outside and, just forconvenience sake, went through
(11:55):
the drive-thru?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
And a deaf person cannot do that because of the
way it's set up and working hereat a deaf center.
Unless I worked here, I wouldnot have known something like
that.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Right.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I would not have realized the barriers that exist
in everyday life, that deafpeople face.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I know you talked about hurricane preparedness and
so on too.
Didn't you say something aboutwhen they send the announcements
out to evacuate and all of that?
Weren't you talking?
About that as well.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Yes, and I will tell you.
So.
It's extremely important fordeaf individuals to have that
on-screen interpreter duringimportant public communications
like press conferences, forevacuations, especially
mandatory evacuations, or forpublic safety.
And I am so excited because weare extremely lucky that Lee
(12:56):
County here, their Lee Countygovernment and Lee County
emergency operations they havestarted a Ready Lee Resilience
Movement where they're includingagencies like ours to have a
seat at the table so that theycan improve those things to make
sure that an interpreter isprovided, to make sure that
(13:17):
communication is happening sothat a deaf person can be
alerted that there's a boilwater notice in their
neighborhood after the hurricane.
They're working on ways for,you know, you can now text to
911 things that were you knowcouldn't be done before.
It was only a phone call, right.
(13:37):
So, yeah, we're extremely luckythat we're part of that
partnership and thatcollaboration to improve public
safety and we're working on thatnow.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I'm so glad to hear that, especially after Ian and
everything that we went throughhere in Fort Myers Beach and in
Lee County, I'm thrilled to hearthat that is on the horizon.
So just to wrap up, amy, if youcould name one thing that you
probably need more than anything, what would it be?
(14:06):
How can we help?
How can everyone help?
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Well, I appreciate that.
You know, because of the factthat we're a very small
nonprofit agency, we have fiveindividuals working for us and
we're responsible for fivecounties.
So funding, funding, funding,Funding is always an issue,
especially with funds comingfrom government grants that are
(14:33):
unstable.
Right now, we absolutely canuse funding, so we are looking
for board members that are ableto help us connect to people
with funds, and that would be abig thing for us.
That would be a game changer tobe able to continue to serve and
expand our services, which areso critically needed right now.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
What's the best way to reach you, Amy?
Speaker 3 (14:57):
You can reach me through our website, which is
www.
dhhc.
life.
L-i-f.
As in Frank E, that's ourinitials of Deaf and Hard of
Hearing Center.
Dhhclife.
L-i-f.
As in Frank E, that's ourinitials of Deaf and Hard of
Hearing Center dhhclife.
Or you can email me directly atamyturner A-M-Y-T-U-R-N-E-R at
(15:18):
dhhc.
life.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Amy, I know you're a busy gal and I appreciate you
taking the time out today totell everyone around you and
about you and what you do, and Iappreciate you being such a
dear friend and all you do.
So I will see you later, thanks.
Thanks for joining me today.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Right back at you.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
All right, take care Bye.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Thank you for joining us on State Insurance USA Cares
.
We hope today's story upliftedand inspired you If you'd like
to support or learn more aboutthe incredible Bye.
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