📢 Important message from the CEO of GLAD, Dr. Patricia Hughes, regarding LA fires impacting Los Angeles County and deaf* communities.

 

Transcript:

 

Hello, my name is Patricia Hughes, I am CEO of Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness (GLAD). [Name sign with “P” on the left chest/shoulder] 

 

I want to share a few statements with all of you making it aware that we are here in Los Angeles, and we are experiencing huge disasters with several wildfires happening at the same time in Los Angeles County.

 

It is extremely terrifying and intense with the fires happening all around  

It’s important that you all stay safe! 

 

Yes, the GLAD office is here in Los Angeles. We are closed with these reasons:  

Making sure our staff are safe staying in their homes.

Another reason is the severe bad air quality around the area near GLAD office.  

 

Our senior residents living on the 3rd floor of GLAD building are safe and sound. That’s what matters!  

 

Also, it’s important that you can continue to receive our services through videophone (VP) and you will see our contact information at the end of the vlog. You can choose which VP numbers from the list to contact us to make an appointment with our Community Advocates.  

We are ready to work with you by finding the resources such as if you lost your home, forced to move due to evacuation, or anything else. Please do contact us and we will work with you.  

Please visit our GLAD website and you will see our website link address at the end of this vlog. 

 

Our website has ongoing updates of the current wildfires in Los Angeles.  

 

We are aware that some of you are worried about some things, if it is true or not true. There are many people out there who could make false information about an incident that is damaged only to find out that it is not true causing worry. Then there’s another incident that is actually damaged and ended up being true.

 

However, not everything is true and some have false information. It’s sad to see some people making false statements and taking advantage of people by putting our community in a bad situation and causing chaos. 

 

You can contact our advocates to get facts and accurate information.

 

We are fully ready on standby with all the information and resources you need, and we have reached out to local places for information on shelters. We make sure that the shelters have ASL interpreters available whether there is an in-person or video remote interpreter on screen. We make sure if you arrive at one of the shelters and experience a lack of access to an interpreter, you have every right to have an ASL interpreter during this time after you leave your home because you already are going through a difficult situation by leaving your home and end up not having communication access. That is not ACCEPTABLE at all!  

 

You can contact us to get advocacy by contacting the shelter to work things out and get you an ASL interpreter there. It’s important for the communication process to go smoothly as much as possible.  

Please be aware that some interpreters might not be available in-person because they may be dealing with situations because of the wildfires. VRI will work too depending on how things are progressing.  

 

We already contacted as many shelters as possible to make sure they are providing ASL interpreters through and deployed by the organizations. We will check to make sure and check all of the resources available. 

 

We really care about all of you!  

 

We do not know when we will open our office here again. Hopefully next week but again it depends on the fire situation in Los Angeles and the air quality if it is safe enough for our staff and consumers to come back to the office.  

 

We will be monitoring the ongoing updates day by day. We will keep you updated. We are here to stand with you all and we will work with you in any way we can.  

 

STAY SAFE! Thank you! 

 

VD: Patricia is wearing a blue sweatshirt. Deaf artwork in the background. GLAD logo on the top right corner.

 

For fire emergency updates and resources, visit: GLADinc.org

 

#LosAngelesCounty #LAFires #GLADeaf #DeafCommunity