April 22, 2020
Dear Colorado Early Hearing Detection and Intervention stakeholders,
As co-principal investigators of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) grant program from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2024, the Colorado Commission for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and DeafBlind (CCDHHDB) and the Colorado Department of Human Services Office of Early Childhood (OEC) Early Intervention (EI) Program are committed to sharing the below.
The attachment, generated by HRSA, is comprised of the online grant application we submitted on November 8, 2019. We believe that it is valuable for us to share our four-year grant work with the EHDI stakeholders in Colorado while we, together, refresh the EHDI system. This will be the first of many documents (i.e., sustainability statement, work plan, reports) we intend to share with the stakeholders of Colorado EHDI. It is a shared responsibility for all of us.
Our grant work as outlined is not set in stone in what we will be doing. Prior to the official email of the Notice of Award (NOA) by HRSA on March 7, 2020, we were asked to submit our revised budget for clarity purposes and again, after the NOA, we were asked to submit a revised budget within the HRSA template and a revised budget narrative. These are a couple of examples of how our grant application has already evolved over a short period of time. Please be advised that several pieces of the information you are about to review are already revised and that there is flexibility for us to mold our EHDI system within the parameters of our grant application.
CCDHHDB and CDHS OEC EI Program were grateful for the key EHDI stakeholders who joined the force in developing the grant application for its submission in November 2019. Those involved in the EHDI research, plan brainstorming, budgeting, and grant application writing were: Katie Cue, Organizational Development Consultant; Arlene Stredler-Brown, Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder; Ashley Renslow, Early Education Consultant at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind; and Amy Novotny, Director of the Rocky Mountain Deaf School. This group, along with the arrival of Heather Abraham as EHDI Family Support and Engagement Coordinator, has since been converted into a core team supporting a larger Colorado EHDI Alliance and its mission.
We, together, will continue to shape our beautiful state of Colorado’s EHDI system into an effective, seamless, and resourceful system for families with deaf and hard-of-hearing infants, toddlers, and young children, ages birth through three. It is them and only them who deserve an effective, seamless, and resourceful EHDI system.
If you have questions about the grant application, please contact either Cliff Moers, Director of CCDHHDB, at cliff.moers@state.co.us or 720-457-3679, or Christy Scott, Director of CDHS OEC EI Program, at christy.scott@state.co.us or 303-866-5948.