We are now scheduling for 2025:

In-Person/Zoom Presentations on Hearing Loss

Ask us about these presentations for your group:

How to Cope with Hearing Loss: Tips, Techniques, Assistive Listening Technology. Presentation for Sonoma County (and other) Libraries (August 5, 2024 at Rincon Valley Library, September 9, 2024 at Windsor Library, February 2025)

Essential Information about Hearing Loss: Presentation for Community Groups (January 12, 2024 at Villa Marin, October 15, 2024 at Aldersly, October 24, 2024 at Smith Ranch Homes.)

How to Communicate Better with People who have Hearing Loss: All attendees receive a tip card to take with them and share with others. This slide presentation follows the HLAA Tip Cards to show step-by-step how participants can communicate better with someone who has hearing loss. It emphasizes that both the hearing person and the person with hearing loss need to be aware of each other’s emotional needs. (November 1, 2024, Philosophical Education Organization)

HOPE Support Groups

(Ongoing monthly group at Spring Lake Village, Villa Marin, Vivalon)

(4th Thursday in Zoom at hearinglossnorthbay.org)

HOPE (Hearing Other People’s Experiences) support groups can meet at your facility once a month. Participants share challenges and successes of living with hearing loss. Participants sit in a circle and pass around a microphone. We listen to each other first. After that we offer suggestions, advice, tips.

Request a Free Group Presentation or ongoing monhly Support group for your service organization, adult community, book club or faith community.

As part of HLAANB’s mission to inform, educate, support, and advocate for people with hearing loss, we are offering free virtual (or in-person as health ordinances permit) presentations to groups in Marin and Sonoma Counties.

  • Presenter Sara Oser gives presentations either solo or with others depending on the group’s request and location.

  • Sara Oser holds degrees from Florida State University and University of Colorado, Boulder. She is a retired College of Marin instructor, HLAANB co-founder and leader with her own personal hearing loss story to tell. She has presented in Marin County for College of Marin faculty and classified employees, Drake Terrace, Aldersly Retirement Community, Lucas Valley Homeowners’ Association, Novato A.M. Business Women, Novato Marin Village, Women of Rodef Sholom; and in Sonoma County at Presbyterian Church of the Roses, and Up Valley Family Centers in Calistoga. She facilitates a monthly HOPE support group at Spring Lake Village in Santa Rosa.

  • Depending on the hearing loss topics your group is interested in, the presentation can be interactive with participants first meeting in small groups and after that sharing with the large group. By doing so, participants can contribute their own difficult hearing situations, strategies for communicating better and feelings about hearing loss. Other groups may prefer a more academic presentation, where information is presented (without first meeting in small groups) and discussed afterwards.

  • The presentation length depends on your group’s needs. Usually 40 minutes to one hour is an ideal length of time to allow for plenty of questions. Our presentation are relevant to many groups including homeowner associations, caregivers, retirement communities, religious groups, volunteer organizations, colleges, employee orientations. The presentation can be virtually in Zoom with automated speech recognition, or in-person informally in a small area with good acoustics or more formally in a larger area with a microphone and projector or large TV screen capable of mirroring a presentation.

  • In-person and virtual group presentations are free. To support continued information and presentations, we encourage donations through joining HLAA or supporting our chapter.