Our Philanthropy
Delta Zeta’s national philanthropy is speech and hearing and The Painted Turtle camp. At the 2006 National Convention, Delta Zeta’s partnerships were announced with The Painted Turtle and The Starkey Hearing Foundation.
Also, as members of Delta Zeta we support our national philanthropic project which is the Sound Beginnings Program. This program raises awareness of the need for newborn hearing screening and the importance of starting early intervention when a hearing loss is identified before six months of age. Delta Zeta is partnered with the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM) at Utah State University on the development and implementation of the Sound Beginnings program.
Delta Zeta also is partnered with Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., the only four-year liberal arts school in the world devoted wholly to the needs, instruction, and training of young people who are deaf, and the House Ear Institute, which is one of the world's foremost research, teaching, and treatment centers in the field of hearing.
Our other National Philanthropy - The Painted Turtle - is the sixth addition to Paul Newman’s family of Hole in the Wall Camps for seriously ill children. It is also the only multi-disease camp and family care center of its kind on the West Coast. Through educational, therapeutic, safe, and just plain fun summer camp and year-round programs, The Painted Turtle provides a life-changing experience to children whose daily struggles often diminish both their desire to be well and their ability to lead a rich, productive life.
Speech and Hearing Facts
- An estimated 42,000,000 Americans (about 10% of the U.S. population) have communication disorders (problems with hearing, speech, or language.)
- Communication disorders are our nation's number one handicapping disability (affecting more people than heart disease, paralysis, epilepsy, blindness, Tuberculosis, Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, and Multiple Sclerosis combined!)
- Most people with communicative disorders can be helped. Rehabilitation for these impairments includes medical and surgical treatments, hearing aids, and hearing and speech rehabilitation.
- Expenditures for programs and services for the communicatively impaired are an estimated $23.4 billion per year.
- An excess of $21 million is spent annually on research into prevention and treatment of communicative disorders.
