The event raises critical funds to extend access to services and treatment for our neighbors with communication disorders and deafness and low incomes and wealth.

Hearing Speech + Deaf Center brought the first audiologist and speech-language pathologist to Cincinnati in the 1950s. Later we were a driving force in creating what is now the Department of Communication Sciences & Disorder at the University of Cincinnati. In the '70s, our onsite preschool for deaf children contributed to the understanding of deaf children's play behaviors relative to their hearing peers. In 1976, we partnered with the State of Ohio to establish a division delivering deaf services in southwestern Ohio as one of eight Community Centers for the Deaf designated by Opportunity for Ohioans with Disabilities (OOD). Over the years, many of our clinicians have earned degrees and advanced their careers as UC faculty or staff.

The 2023 Laura and Richard Kretschmer Service Award Gala celebrates this long-shared partnering with the Communication Sciences professionals at the University of Cincinnati.

Today, our top-notch clinicians and professional staff deliver audiology and deaf services and speech-language and occupational therapy at offices in Butler, Clermont, and Hamilton counties and surrounding communities. Our core values motivate our efforts to promote communication equity, inclusion, and access for neighbors with communication disorders or deafness without regard to their financial resources. That focus extends access to our healthcare services and treatments to neighbors who could not otherwise afford treatment.