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NAD President Melissa gives an update on the National Family Campaign, a deaf track within a Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling program, the NAD's state registration, and a recap summary of the Board's visit in Indianapolis.

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VIDEO DESC & TRANSCRIPT: The NAD logo appears on bottom right corner as a watermark. Melissa Draganac-Hawk is in front of a grey background.

MELISSA: Hi, I'm Melissa and I have a few things to share with you in this video.

First, delegates from the 2018 Council of Representatives (COR) passed "National Parent Campaign” as one of the 2018-2020 priorities. Since then, a committee was established to focus on this priority and has been working hard to complete the tasks. The committee realized that not all children have "parents" -- some are raised by grandparents, aunts and uncles, same-sex parents, or foster parents. The committee recommended to the NAD Board that the name be revised to "National Family Campaign" and the Board agreed. This change has been shared with the delegates. I'm pleased to announce the change in the priority name to "National Family Campaign."

Second, another priority from the earlier 2016-2018 term was for the "Creation of Mental Health Training Program and a Communication Hub on Health Related Information." Since then, the NAD through a committee researched on available programs to take on a mental health training program, and –the committee identified Western Oregon University (WOU) as a possibility. WOU has a Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling program and recently agreed to add nine credits of a track focusing on deaf-related courses. This new track will be an online hybrid program to begin this Fall!

Third -- recently, the community was concerned about the NAD's state registration and thought it was expired. The NAD state registration is in good standing. There are two links. The old link shows the expired registration. However, if you go to the new link, you will see that we are in good standing. The NAD's operations and receipt of donations were not affected in any way. We continue to do our work as usual.

Last, this past weekend, the NAD Board met in Indianapolis, Indiana. I would like to thank two groups who welcomed us warmly -- the Indiana School for the Deaf (ISD) and the Indiana Association of the Deaf (IAD). ISD gave us a campus tour and explained their programs. We were able to meet with the students and have lunch with them. ISD also invited us to a spring break presentation of students who went to India where they shared their experiences and we learned so much from them, and we were also invited to witness a Senior Night ceremony for the baseball and softball teams. ISD is truly remarkable! IAD was also gracious -- they invited us to dinner, shared their goals and strategy plan, and explained how they make money from their ASL classes for the community. During the weekend, the NAD Board also took the time to discuss many important topics and we will soon share updates of the 2018-2020 priorities. We also made preparations for the NAD Leadership Training Conference (NLTC) in Little Rock, Arkansas this October. Thank you!

Video cuts to grey background with the NAD logo quickly changing in different bright colors from teal to white to black to hot pink to green to orange to teal to yellow to purple to finally the official NAD logo with copyright text underneath “The National Association of the Deaf (c) 2019 All Rights Reserved”.