Building on the efforts of those who came before them, the people at Bridges Oregon are breaking down those walls and barriers as they work to provide advocacy to the Deaf in Oregon one day — and grant — at a time.

Chad Ludwig graciously gave up some of his valuable time to sit down with Sorenson and share the story of how he and his team are building an organization based on three pillars: advocacy, education, and communication.

Video Transcript:

Irina: Hello! I’m interviewing Chad Ludwig, Executive Director of Bridges Oregon. I’m Irina, one of Sorenson’s Brand Ambassadors. We invite you to watch the interview.

Ready?

Chad: Thank you for having me here.

The start of Bridges Oregon

Irina: My first question is, can you briefly share how Bridges Oregon got its start?

Chad: To make a long story short, I am a native Californian and have lived in many states. I moved to Oregon from the East. I found that Oregon was one of 12 Western states with no services available to the community. Neighboring states already had Deaf Centers. Washington, for example, had a Deaf Center. Oregon didn’t have one. So I met with the community through my role as President of the Oregon Association of the Deaf (OAD). I served as president from 2013-17.

I met with the community to find out what they wanted. They said we need this. After that, I met with the Oregon legislature and told them the community needed money to set up and grow services. Their first response was, we need data.

I thought, “how do I get the data?”

So they gave us some funding through Oregon Department of Human Services. They contracted with Western Oregon University which had a program called Research and Resource Center with Deaf communities (RRCD). One of the RRCD and university staff was Dr. Denise Thew Hackett, a Deaf woman with a postdoc in Clinical Investigation. She took on the task of doing research all over the state and gathering the data.

We brought that data to the Oregon legislature in their 2017 session. [We got the initial funding in 2015.] The legislature went through the data and said it was great information but there was no money available.

The day after the legislature closed the session, Bridges Oregon was founded because we already had the data and felt it was important to use it right away and get started. Bridges was founded July 5, 2017. Bridges took 3 years to build up. In the time I had around my full-time job, I worked to gather a board, get grant money, and incrementally grow this program. I applied for a few grants that we didn’t get.

This agency will be 7 years old this July. It took 3 years to really get started. Then in 2021 we got our first grant for victims of general crime. That was a three-year, $350,000 grant which gave us roughly $152,000 per year. It was a $355,000 grant, excuse me.

We run on the fiscal year of July 1 to June 30. That first year, we used that grant money to hire our first employee and start the program. The second year of that grant, we got a few more grants allowing us to grow our operating budget to $450,000. We hired our second and third employees.

This is now our third fiscal year and we’ve gotten even more grants, and our budget has grown to $2.17 million. We now have 14 full-time staff. Our current fiscal year ends on June 30, and we’ve already applied for more grants which, if awarded, will allow us to potentially grow to 22 staff.

So, yes, it’s an exciting time and it’s all thanks to the data. That helped us open the door and get started.

The Bridges Oregon Mission

Irina: Great! Thanks for sharing. The mission of Bridges Oregon is “to facilitate equity and inclusiveness and to provide a bridge to opportunities through advocacy, education and communication.” Can you share some ways you are doing this?

Chad: The mission statement is indeed important to know because that language is used to “sell” to grants, contractors, funding sources, and donors. They look at the mission statement and the meaning behind it.

This agency has three divisions: advocacy, education, and communication.

• Advocacy: we provide advocacy services. Right now, we focus on domestic and sexual violence advocation services as well as general crime.
• Our education services focus on employment and independent living with training and workshops.
• Our communication services include our A5 interpreting services and communication facilitation program for DeafBlind.

So the mission statement is what we show to people to win the money to grow this agency. The mission statement is what sells.

Services

Irina: It’s a good mission statement. Your website also says you provide accompaniment services. What does this mean in your situation?

Chad: Good question. As part of our domestic and sexual violence services, we provide advocacy and accompaniment. The accompaniment part is more focused on things like, for example:

• when a survivor goes to court, they will often have a lot of emotions. The person accompanying them will be there in court as a support buddy so the survivor knows they are not alone and can feel more calm. The survivor will go through the court process with that person accompanying them.
• Another situation is when the police are doing their investigation to see what happened, the survivor will also be emotional or shaken up. The accompaniment helps because the police can be intimidating.
• Accompaniment is also provided for people being examined by a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) for a sexual crime. Often people going through that are alone without a support system. The accompanying person goes with them through the whole process. That is the point of the accompaniment program — to help the survivor not feel alone as they go through the process.

Irina: That’s great. Which programs have the most demand right now?

Chad: There are two: employment services and general crime. With general crime, there are 26 different subjects under that category. For example, Driving While or Under the Influence (DWI/DUI), hit and run, arson, identity theft, internet scams, and theft. That is a huge need and is why most people come to us to get services through this agency.

With employment, people are looking for jobs and they need support to know how to find jobs, prepare a resume, and other things related to job search. Those two programs are in high demand.

The future for Bridges Oregon

Irina: Thanks for sharing. Any plans for new programs or initiatives for Bridges Oregon?

Chad: Yes. We have applied for three grants so far.

1. The first is CoNavigator through the Department of Human Services. The old name for that was Support Service Provider for the DeafBlind. That application is now awaiting their decision.
2. The second is Oregon state Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI). Our bid is competing with the Oregon Health Authority which has had that grant for 20 years. (Five years for each grant period.) They’ve applied for a fifth five-year grant and we’ve submitted our own application. Now it’s up to the federal government to decide who gets that grant, us or them. That should be announced around March.
   The CoNavigator grant should be announced anytime.
3. The third grant we just applied for last Friday is related to a self-advocation training curriculum.

We are watching one more grant. Really, we have two or three different grants we’re watching for that haven’t been posted yet. This one is a big one from Oregon Department of Human Services for Advocacy and Case Management services to the Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing in Oregon. We’re watching that one because the Oregon legislature recently approved the money for that. So we’re watching for that to open then we’ll apply for it and see if we get awarded that grant. We may have competition from others.

We are always watching for possible grants to support this agency and our growth.

Not only that, we often look back at the Community-based Needs Assessment, the report that was given to the legislature in 2017. That report has nine areas or topics such as employment, emergency preparedness, vocational rehabilitation (VR), medical, and legal system. Many needs were identified in that report and Bridges wants to fill all the gaps. So we hunt for various grants to help us cover those needs identified in the Community-based Needs Assessment. It’s a big job for sure.

Irina: Wow. My fingers are crossed. What developments for the community have been most encouraging for you?

Chad: Really, the support from the community. For many years, even before I moved to Oregon 12 years ago… During my time as OAD president, many people said they’d tried and failed due to barriers. So when many people in the community saw what we wanted to do, their attitude was to wait and see what happened. They questioned it because many other Deaf leaders tried in the past, but the resources were not there. Was it just timing? I feel strongly that all the attempts they made are valuable because it helped this to happen. So now that it really is happening, with us now in our third year of providing services, the community is now recognizing that. We’ve earned their belief and have credibility.

We’re now looking at the possibility of doing another “grand tour” through Oregon to meet with the community and get their input. The last time this was done was when I did that in 2014-15 so it feels like it is time for another one. We’re talking with Oregon Association of the Deaf and their current president on plans to meet with the community and find out what the needs for the next ten years looks like. Then we can work off that.

Taking advantage of technology

Irina: True. How do the different technology options Deaf/DeafBlind/Hard of Hearing people have help you and them?

Chad: I feel that it is amazing how technology has changed over time. We’ve now added Zoom [Link to https://sorenson.com/vrs/sorenson-for-zoom/?] and auto-generated captions – even though it’s not the best solution. Now ChatGPT. It’s an amazing tool to have. It really helps not just me but my whole team to lift up our written communication and generate ideas.

I can’t imagine what’s next. What will it look like in one or two years? Before, we’d wonder what would happen in ten years. Now technology changes every year. It really is faster these days.

Irina: Yes, changes are closer. Anything else you feel people should know about Bridges Oregon?

Chad: Yes. I think it is important that if you have a vision, don’t give up. When you wake up every morning, reminding yourself of that vision is important. This agency is a statewide service which means we serve over 1 million people with hearing loss.

According to the formula we got from Gallaudet Research Institute (GRI), there are about four thousand Deaf people who use sign language in Oregon. That is the difference this agency makes in the lives of that large community. It is important. This is not an “overnight” thing. It’s taken ten to eleven years of steady work.

If you have a vision, persistence is key. Remind yourself it will make a difference. When? How? What will it look like? It will come together at some point. Just believe in yourself, be persistent, and get support and you will make a difference.

Irina: Wow. Thanks for sharing, and I agree, persistence is how we achieve our goals. Thanks for your time and for this interview. I’ve enjoyed talking with you.

Chad: Thank you. Have a good day.

Visit the Bridges Oregon website to see more about the organization and what it offers.