Families To Families
For Families with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children in the Hampton Roads Area
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  • Sign Language
    • F2F ASL Class
    • Community sign language classes
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  • Summer Camps in VA in 2020
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Our History

Lizzy Allen initiated Families to Families in 2013 as a Capstone Project for a Professional Studies program, "Deaf and Hard of Hearing Infants, Toddlers and their Families" through Gallaudet University.  She recruited Melinda Gallagher,to cohost the group with her providing a Deaf and Hearing team.  Together they planned four monthly gatherings for families with young deaf and hard of hearing children in the Hampton Roads area.  The project was successful and families requested that Families to Families continue.  The group continues to meet once a month Sept. - Nov. and Jan. - April at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Norfolk, VA.  During the summer months we meet at fun areas throughout the region such as parks, playgrounds, the Zoo, the Botanical Gardens.  

Who We Are

 Lizzy Allen is a retired teacher of the deaf and currently works as a sign language interpreter for Sorenson Communications.  She received a M.Ed. in Deaf Education in 1975 and taught in early Intervention and in elementary classrooms for deaf and hard of hearing children from 1975 - 2004 in North Carolina, Virginia, Washington and New Mexico. She and her husband have a blended family of 6 children and 4 grandchildren.  Together they travel to Malawi, Africa annually to participate with the students and teachers at the Embangweni School for the Deaf.  
 Melinda Gallagher is an educator and currently works for Hired Hands & Associates as an Employment Specialist for the Deaf.  She is Deaf and has Deaf parents. Melinda graduated from Gallaudet University majoring in Family and Child Studies.  She has taught at a Bilingual Day Care for
Deaf and hearing children in Boston, Massachusetts and at the Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham, Massachusetts.  She taught ASL at Tidewater Community College.  Melinda and her husband have one son and many furry children.  She and her family love camping and skiing.  
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