- We are your civic engagement outreach team.
- We represent diverse communities
within our collective community of deaf, deafblind
and hard of hearing individuals.
- Our work is to
- educate
- empower with knowledge
- give tools
- to engage
- to mobilize
- to include all at the table
- to collaborate
- to advocate with the 20% of Minnesotans
who are deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing.
- A world of collaboration and support.
Without support, we all fail, but we don't want that.
We need to lift each other up through cooperation.
- My rights as a deaf person. Thank you.
- It's knowing our rights and being able to speak
with our legislators to support the bills for
our deaf and hard of hearing students for their education
and being able to transition to adulthood very easily.
- Access to education for all.
Resource sharing and information gathering and sharing.
Donating food and money and resources that people need.
- Hi. The reason I'm here is because
access is really important to the deaf community.
To be able to feel safe.
Safety is very important to our community. Thank you.
- Let me give you a quote
from the author of the movie Dead Poets Society.
"No matter what people tell you
words and ideas can change the world."
- I need your help so that we can break down barriers
so we can have equal access.
- Automated captioning on television news
are terribly bad with an awful lag.
I think that needs to change.
- Working with a variety of people
of all different groups.
Learning from each other to solve problems
by collaborating.
- Civic engagement is a benefit to me
because by learning about my community
and how I can help, has benefited me greatly
because by learning a lot about politics
it's helped me become a better citizen.
- Direct service provides personal time and energy
to address immediate community means.
- Communities working together through advocacy
and education.
- Access to higher education.
- I want better access for our children
in schools
with instructors who are fluent in sign language
which is much different than I experienced
when I was in school.
So I want the teachers for deaf children
to be fluent in sign language.
- Building strong, trusting relationships with the community
and engaging with everyone
no matter their background or experience.
- Collaboration, collecting information, and doing research
for services that will benefit us.
- I want to see equality within our communities.
I do not want to see disparities.
I don't want a majority or a minority.
I would like everyone to be on an equal footing.
- Access to a suitable means of communication at any age.
- Being involved in the community, volunteering and voting.
- Improving communities by partnering with local and city
communities to better understand each other.
And then education, how we can build higher education
for everyone with equal access.
- My goal is to see more inclusion of People
of Color and BIPOC communities
as well as organizations and agencies
that should be coming together
from different backgrounds to collaborate to make change.
- We need to be involved in our everyday lives
to make change happen and make things better.
Get involved in your community.
Vote. Talk with our legislators.
Do more to get involved in our community.
- It's important that we get to know our community
and it's important to express yourself.
That includes communication going both ways
and all ideas coming together
networking, sharing and empowering each other
to help improve our community going forward.
- The Minnesota legislative website can be hard to navigate.
I really didn't know how to look for senators, legislators
for any information regarding the legislative sessions
for the Senate, for the House.
I had no idea what I was looking at.
I was able to take workshops.
And from there, I learned how to use the website
in order to, you know, I can find my name, my address.
I could find my senators, everything involved.
I could find bills related to deaf, deafblind
and hard of hearing individuals.
So now I feel competent to be able to navigate that website.
And I really am grateful for that.
- It means sharing and telling your story.
- I think volunteering is incredibly important
as a way to give back to the community
in different opportunities in different ways.
- Civic engagement is being part of a large system
to provide solutions to problems.
- Hello. Civic engagement is about coming together
as a community.
Showing support of what ever is happening in the government
and learning for ourselves.
It's getting together to learn more
about what's happening and teaching each other
how to empower ourselves.
- Civic engagement is a huge benefit to me
and the state of Minnesota
due to everything that's been happening related to COVID-19
the press releases from the governor
everything that's been happening within the news.
Civic engagement helps us know what's happening
and what events are going on around us
which benefits us all.
- Civic engagement encompasses a variety
of different categories
social justice, culture, language, identity, and the like.
As a teacher teaching in the college level
my knowledge, my skills and talents
with them I am able to empower others to help support them
in feeling good and successful.