Deaf Home Supports (DHS) provides support to:
All our staff and home share providers are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, or American Sign Language (ASL) proficient. We provide support and facilitate communication among Deaf and Hard of Hearing staff, home share providers and individuals and with the hearing world (e.g., social workers, doctors, probation officers, dentists, schools, etc.) by working with interpreters, ASL proficient staff, and augmenting technological supports.
We provide individualized supports for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and non-verbal children in their homes as well as adults with intellectual or mental health disabilities living in the community with their family, in a home share (foster) or independently. We offer home supports and/or community supports to help improve the quality of life, support the development of life skills, and facilitate the individual’s engagement in community life. All services are provided in ASL.
We provide services including: the provision of case management, recruitment and training of ASL proficient staff, consultation, coordination of crisis and emergency response, after-hours emergency services, and facilitation of licensing where required. Services help individuals participate in community life and the program develops additional programming for participants to connect with the community.
Our homes have an ASL-rich environment for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, or non-verbal children, youth, or adults to thrive in. We have Deaf role models and a signing milieu for them to use and to strengthen their language and communication skills. We participate and engage meaningfully in the community, school and work life as well as foster their connection and communication with their families and significant others. The 2 homes we have with:
Child Home & Support Services Kai Na Quiniget (KNQ)
Adult Home & Support Services Fuga House
We have a Deaf group every Wednesday evenings where we do recreational activities with the Deaf community to provide an opportunity to use and improve their social skills in an ASL-rich environment within the community. We do recreational and social activities like movies, arts and craft, life skills development, health, and nutrition, etc.
We use a person-centered approach that responds to everyone’s emotional, psychosocial, cultural, linguistic, intellectual, recreational, physical, and spiritual needs and honours their potentials and right to self-determination. We offer culturally proficient services for individuals and home share providers in American Sign Language (ASL).
Referrals to Deaf Home Supports are made through various New Directions Adult and Child Services programs.
If you are not a part of another New Directions Service and would like to make a referral, contact the Deaf Home Supports Manager.
