Hearing-Impaired Teenagers Help Build Center for Their Peers
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Eight hearing-impaired teenagers from Los Angeles high schools are working with contractors this summer to build the state’s largest deaf community center, organizers said.
Restoring a historical building in Eagle Rock, contractors pay the students to do manual labor--moving materials, building handrails, and cleaning up--while they learn basic construction skills.
“Traditionally, deaf people are discriminated against with job training and anything to do with job development,” said Marcella Meyer, head of the Greater Los Angeles Council on Deafness, which is running the program. Advocates for the hearing-impaired say 45% of deaf people are unemployed and 90% are underemployed.
The 51,000-square-foot building will provide housing along with social, recreational and educational services.
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