Hello Friends –

Supporting Success for Children with Hearing Loss and parent-advocate Valerie James Abbott are collaborating to bring you the opportunity to engage with your community organizations, schools, parents, and professionals and discuss the topic of late-identified hearing loss in early childhood. Using our shared desire for all students who are deaf and hard of hearing to be identified as early as possible, learn language alongside their family and friends, and be connected to resources that support student goals, we are offering a limited number of matching grants (up to $750) to help make it easier to bring Valerie to your community. 

Hearing loss in early childhood is far more common than most people realize. In fact, the prevalence of hearing loss more than doubles between birth and school age when we include mild, unilateral and other kinds of hearing loss (Munoz, Abbott, White, et.al., 2024). Valerie’s mission through her latest book, Late to the Party: Extraordinary Stories of Hope After Late-Identified Hearing Loss, her conference presentations, and other community conversations dovetails into what we offer at Supporting Success . Together we are taking her mission a step further: helping more groups look at the journey of late-identification from the family viewpoint, and allowing communities to consider what information, knowledge, or resources might be currently missing from their toolbox today that could be helpful tomorrow. 

Valerie has addressed countless audiences, including Annual Early Hearing Detection and Identification (EHDI) Conference, the annual Hearing Loss Association of American

Convention, and the USA/Canada Lion’s Club Forum, emphasizing the importance of ongoing hearing health monitoring and the impact late-identification has on families and children. Where her heart lives, however, is in smaller, regional conversations – and that is where this travel grant comes into play.

Supporting Success for Children with Hearing Loss (SSCHL) will open up a few matching travel grants of up to $750 to help businesses, schools, non-profits, agencies, and organizations that support children / students who are Deaf or hard of hearing and/or families of children with hearing loss bring Valerie James Abbott from her home base in Richmond, VA to their community for an event focused around children who were not identified through newborn hearing screening protocols or typical timeframes, loosely defined as those who received a diagnosis after a year of age. The remaining balance must be covered by the applicant organization or by a matching grant from another funder. Please complete this application in full and submit it as directed on the SSCHL website. If you have questions, please contact both brenda@success4kidswhl.com and valeriejamesabbott@gmail.com for the fastest reply.

Important Guidelines:

Please Read Before Starting the Application

• This grant is available to businesses, schools, non-profits, agencies, and organizations that support children/students who are Deaf or hard of hearing and/or families of children with hearing loss.
• This grant is intended to help cover Valerie’s travel, lodging, and meal costs only. It does not include an honorarium or speaker fee (which may or may not be applicable to your event or invitation.)
• Applications can be completed online from September 30, 2026 – January 31, 2027 and must be received at least 90 days before the estimated event date; 120 days more is preferred. SSCHL will respond to each request within 30 calendar days of receipt.
• Grant funds are limited and are awarded when they are in alignment with SSCHL’s financial goals and business priorities. Submitting an application does not guarantee funding.
• Acceptance of grant funds is conditioned on SSCHL’s right to use photos and/or video of Valerie from the event for SSCHL’s own marketing purposes.

Valerie’s Books