About Us 2 2

Hope UCC is very pleased that we can now provide multiple modes of hearing assistance for those in need.

WHY?

Over 5% of the world’s population – or 430 million people – require rehabilitation to address their ‘disabling’ hearing loss (432 million adults and 34 million children). It is estimated that by 2050 over 700 million people – or one in every ten people – will have disabling hearing loss. (World Health Organization, April 2021).

Those with hearing loss are often an unknown and under-served group. Everyone knows someone with hearing loss, yet if you ask people what accommodations are made, they often have no idea that assistive listening accommodations are available.

One misunderstood aspect of hearing loss is that while hearing aids are great, they do not work in every situation. Hearing aids work great in a quiet environment, but in places with a lot of ambient noise, an assistive listening system is needed to block out unwanted sound and deliver sound directly to people’s ears. People with hearing loss need more signal than noise- it isn’t helpful if the sound is just louder.

For Those Without Hearing Aids, we offer two different modes of hearing assistance:

We offer a lanyard worn receiver with earphone. The receiver has volume controls and picks up the radio signal broadcasted locally from our sound board.

An alternate method (preferred) is to stream the audio to your smartphone with the “listen everywhere” app described below, and to listen through an earphone or earbuds connected to your smartphone.

For those with Hearing Aids, we also offer two different modes of hearing assistance:

The same lanyard described above, also serves as a local t-coil loop. For those whose hearing aids are equipped with a t-coil (most are), the signal from the loop will directly pair with your hearing aids and the volume can be controlled by the receiver on the lanyard.

If your hearing aids have a smartphone app, then Another (the preferred) method of connecting to our system, is to download the listen everywhere app to your smartphone. The app can be dowloaded from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

When you are in our Sanctuary, connect to our WiFi by joining the "Hear-Hope" WiFi network and entering the password "listennow". (you will only need to do this step one time - your smartphone will remeber the password on future visits)

When you open the app, it will briefly hunt to find our WiFi server and then allow you to stream the service audio, directly into your hearing aids via their bluetooth connection to your smartphone.

Our Facility and Many others are or will be listed on Loopfinder

The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a distinct and diverse community of Christians that come together as one church to join faith and action. With over 5,000 churches and nearly one million members across the U.S., the UCC serves God in the co-creation of a just and sustainable world. The UCC is a church of firsts, a church of extravagant welcome, and a church where "…they may all be one" (John 17:21).

The Church of Firsts

Since 1957, the United Church of Christ has been the church of firsts, weaving God’s message of hope and extravagant welcome with action for justice and peace. Together, we live out our faith in ways that effect change in our communities. The UCC's many "firsts" mean that we have inherited a tradition of acting upon the demands of our faith. When we read in Galatians: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus"—a demand is made upon us. And so we were the first historically white denomination to ordain an African-American, the first to ordain a woman, the first to ordain an openly gay man, and the first Christian church to affirm the right of same-gender couples to marry. We were in the forefront of the anti-slavery movement and the Civil Rights movement. Our response to the demands of our faith is woven into the history of our country.

A Church of Extravagant Welcome

Today, we continue to change lives throughout the world. We work alongside more than 200 mission partners. We labor ceaselessly to fight injustice, in the United States and abroad. We instill our vision into our youth and young adults, forging leaders who will imagine new dreams. And we sustain and develop church leaders, pastors, and our local churches to live their faith in exciting new ways. We believe in a God that is still speaking, a God that is all-loving and inclusive. We are a church that welcomes and accepts everyone as they are, where your mind is nourished as much as your soul.

We are a church where Jesus the healer meets Jesus the revolutionary, and where together, we grow a just and peaceful world.