Thursday, November 17th, the Sertoma Foundation of Canada, operating on behalf of the Thamesville Sertoma and LaSertoma Clubs, as well as the Chatham Sertoma Club, presented the Children’s Treatment Centre Foundation with a cheque for $25,500 in support of the Centre’s Speech and Audiology programs.
The Children’s Treatment Centre’s Audiology services are open to all ages, allowing the Centre to keep children with long-term disabilities on caseload, and accept new adult referrals to the caseload. The Children’s Treatment Centre is the only facility in the region that is not-for-profit and has certified Audiologists providing services to all ages.
Over the past 4 years, the Sertoma Foundation has funded over $115,000 to support the Centre in purchasing much needed equipment, allowing our audiologists to perform specialized diagnostic testing to children and adults in our community. “The Sertoma Foundation’s support of the Centre is invaluable.” Stated Sandra Dekok, Audiology Service Manager. Dekok continued, “Their continued assistance will allow us to reach out and support our community in countless ways.”
The Sertoma Foundation’s funding will help the Centre purchase more age-appropriate therapy supplies, materials and communication games for elementary and secondary school-aged clients, and will also help fund the Babies and Books Belong Together Campaign, an inter-disciplinary partnership between several community agencies that promotes early literacy and language development by providing new parents with a book, guides, and development milestones for their babies.
Additionally, the Sertoma Foundation’s funding will allow the Centre to hire a Communication Disorders Assistant (CDA) to support Audiology services. Hiring an additional CDA will facilitate shorter wait times for newborns, more hearing tests throughout the community, reduce wait times for hearing aid repairs, added support during busy times, and provide basic testing allowing Audiologists to focus on more detailed needs.
The Children’s Treatment Centre and Foundation are extremely excited about the Sertoma Foundation of Canada’s continued support of our Audiology and Speech services.