ASL Educators Needed. Can You Help?

ASL Educators Needed. Can You Help?

We are in need of ASL instructors in Dallas area for the ASL for Refugee program hosted by the International Rescue Committee. We want to expand our curriculum and add an intermediate class and are looking for someone who is willing to develop this curriculum and work with our students. If you would like more information regarding the position please email either Ryan Krone or Julie Anderson at the email addresses provided.

The International Rescue Committee is a non-profit organization that was started in 1933 to help refugees around the world to find a new home here in the United States. The organization itself works in regions of conflict to provide basic services in refugee camps there and to provide resettlement services here in the United States. Our mission in Dallas is to provide resettlement services for clients such as food, shelter, social benefits, employment, and access to language services; in essence giving them helping hand till they can become self sufficient.

For more information the main website for the IRC is: http://www.rescue.org

We have a community of refugee clients that are deaf and hard of hearing and have had difficulty communicating with us at the IRC and with others in general. Julie Anderson, my supervisor, saw a need and started an ASL for refugees class last year and it has slowly been increasing in size. The majority of our students are from Bhutan and Burma and many of them do not understand written English. The class has been working on a basic curriculum that incorporates signs of nouns that are used in daily life, letters, numbers, time, etc. We have several students that are learning quite fast and we want to get them to a level that they could then go to the Deaf Action Center to continue their progress. But we need to add a class in order to do so to accommodate the advanced students and still have a basic class for beginner level and new students. We need to expand the curriculum to do so as well and this would be a part of the position.

The details of the class are as follows. Only refugees or asylees are eligible for the class. We encourage friends and family members of deaf students to attend the class to help build stronger communication skills between family members. The class meets for one hour once a week on Wednesdays. We hold the class for a six week session and then take a 1 week break in between sessions before the six week session starts up again. The students pay $20 for one six week session. The $20 fee goes toward the teacher’s pay, in addition, the IRC supplements an additional payment to the instructor that meets a $300 minimum. So student fees + IRC payment = $300 per session. We have been averaging 5 students per session but there have been as many as 8.

These numbers seem small but we are always gaining new deaf refugee clients at the IRC who we encourage to attend the class. In addition we have started a PR campaign to get more family members to attend as well so the class could increase substantially in the future.

The ideal instructor that we’d be looking for is a graduate student who has an education and ASL background who wants experience and a good resume reference from a recognized non-profit. The job obviously isn’t a full time or even part time position but if this program develops enough, there is a possibility that we could get the attention of grant sources who could make it a part-time or even full-time position in the future.

CONTACT PERSON NAME: Ryan Krone and Julie Anderson

CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS: [email protected] and [email protected]

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