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News 12 Staff

1012spotlightnj2_2024-10-12-09-23-00

October 10th is World Mental Health Day Mental Health America and Osa America Pharmaceutical based in Princeton are teaming up. They're launching a new equity impact zone grant program. It's designed to address mental health gaps within local New Jersey communities. The first recipients pictured are young audiences, New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania in Burlington County and the Mental Health Association of New Jersey in Trenton G A dance studio. And Nutley is what we're putting the spotlight on today. Gina Thomas is the owner Gianna Thomas is her daughter, Regina Miles Call Pepper and Bison Halley are Gianna's a sl interpreters. They're also with the deaf advocacy group. Now we were talking about how you said, OK, it's time to start a day in school for your daughter since she loves music and likes to move. How did you get it off the ground and with what resources it was all my saving, um everything that I own and, and the reason why too and, and Tyson and Regina, I can talk to, I, I, I've been in the deaf community and I see some of their struggles, um you know, with work employment or people wanting to hire them. And I said, you know what, this girl loves to dance and why not open a deaf school, why not open a dance school and hopefully she can take it and make a living out of it. So for me, it wasn't about, it was about put everything that you have my 41 k my saving everything. Um you were an accountant. And so, so, you know, like, so, you know, the red lights were going off in my head. Um But I, I wanted, I wanted, I cared about her future. I think that was my biggest fear. Um When she was born was how is she going to make a living? How is the world going to accept her? How is she going to live in a world where um she signs, not everybody signs and it's an amazing thing to know that, you know, Gianna can dance, you know what I mean? We dance like you mentioned earlier through the vibration, you know what I mean? Um That's the best thing, you know. Um You can't even tell two people are dancing if you're hearing, you know, your death. But you know how to get that walk in and you move in and you do what you need to do and it's excited. Look as you can see, she can feel it like she could feel the energy, right? You know, we can move right and get excited about that. And that's just an awesome feeling but you know, you can do what you can do. How did you all get together, the dance studio and the advocacy group? Well, um I know we met through a community event, another partner and um that's how we connected and we became friends and like a family and like when we support her dance studio, she support de advocacy. Our group come in full force and support to know that death can do it.

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1012spotlightnj3

Gina Dance Studio is located in Nutley. Gina Thomas is the owner Gianna Thomas is her daughter Regina Miles Culpeper and Tyson Halley are Gianna's a sl interpreters. They're also with the deaf advocacy group and Regina. I want you to talk about the fact that you like to dance too, right? How did you get into all this? Yes, I like to dance. I've been dancing since I was little and it kept going and going and going. But you feel the bar breaks by the beach. And by that, I started to realize Gina had a, a dance studio so the actor to teach me more. So I decided to go and I love it. And I really appreciate that she teaching me more at a different kind of dancing. What are you learning at the studio? I'm learning a lot of different opportunity, ballet, all different kind that she teaching me. Yeah. And for the studio, we don't just offer like the studio is all, all inclusive in studio. We, we, we offer, you know, ballet, jazz, hip hop, lyrical um tap from babies from two years old. And we have an adult tap class on Mondays but it's more than dance. We have a LEGO group that meets on Friday. That's for, you know, kids that don't wanna dance. You know, they have autism or they have other disabilities and they just come and they, they build LEGOS. Um So for me, the studio, I really wanted a space where a parent with a special needs kids can feel like I can belong because I feel like that's what I was missing when G I was little and I met Tyson because there is a hearing was association in New Jersey. There's an Essex County chapter and that group really embraced me and that's how I end up meeting with the deaf advocacy group and really support um to make me feel that this journey. Um There's hope, you know, and, and I think when you was little, when the doctor told me, hey, your daughter is deaf and, and I'm like, ok, what does that mean? We have no defecating our family, what do I do? And, and for me to have that hope to see them, you know, to see doctors and different people with, with a disability, having opportunity, give my daughter hope that she can be anything she wanna be in this world.

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1013spotlightnj4_2024-10-13-08-45-19

We are featuring G a dance studio in Nutley. Gina Thomas is the owner Gianna Thomas is her daughter Regina Miles Culpeper and Tyson Halley are Gianna's a sl interpreters. They're also with the deaf advocacy group and Tyson, you wanted to talk about how this gives people hope. This gives hope because as a deaf adult and you look up and you say, wow, um can my child do it? Yes, your child can do anything if you only believe and, and that's like a self inventory within, you know what I mean? You gotta give yourself hope because people would doubt you. They would cut you out and say a, a child will be nothing. We gotta flip that narrative and say they can. And I don't use the term disability. I use the ability because the ability can reach so many and as we can dialogue and talk. And um Gina, I love when I see Gina do her, her favorite dance and when you dance to your hip hop, right? And you love your hip hop and you be right, right? And you be enjoying him and you be doing your thing, right? And people, you like they think you hear him but you can dance and I, I witness and then you give me, give us hope, right? And Regina saying the same thing, right? And it's a life changing impact and how we come to your recitals. It'll be like, wow, just a vast, the ability that if you have autism, cerebral palsy, no matter what you can do it. And I think too, it's, it's also about becoming an advocate, you know, and, and, and, and with, with, with the Human Association, Essex County and the deaf advocacy group, if somebody had asked me, like 40 years ago before I had kids, like before I had Gianna, what, what can I advocate? I'm like, I don't know, but now everybody knows me because I, like, I just keep on going about, I fight for her. I fight for what I know she can and eventually I'm training her to be her own advocate. You know, when she goes to college, if you're sitting somewhere and you don't understand, stay silent, you gotta raise your voice to say, hey, that city doesn't work for me because of my hearing loss and not to be ashamed of her disability. You are beautiful black girl who just happened to be born deaf. That's it. And don't make that your identity, that's not your identity. You have more than just the hearing loss does not define her. She's more than that

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1013spotlightnj5_2024-10-13-09-24-10

We are talking with G at dance studio in Nutley and the deaf advocacy group in Newark Dyson. Tell me all about your group. Um This group started back in 2016. We're located at the church. We had chosen generation ministries on 145 Hudson street where the pastors down in Monroe where deaf parishioners come to worship. Um The city of, of Newark, um the May was in a meeting, a town hall meeting at the church space and that started the deaf advocacy group because there was a lot of issues about the deaf community and they needed to be advocated. They need to be, to be talking for an example. We have street signs for all the deaf people that live in the city of Newark. We have law enforcement that we taught sign language. The mayor of Newark currently have meetings with those who are deaf and blind community uh frequently to get questions. How are we doing? How can we improve those city agencies and then it just trickle down. Um We began teaching sign language um throughout the whole state. And but more importantly, at home, our home base at the North public library or every Saturday where we teach as a team like myself, Regina included Gianna who teach, who, who do you teach to teach the Children sign language? And it's really cool to be able to communicate. And then she, her mom sign at the studio, right, every Monday and then she teach on Mondays. This is not only a Monday, so sign language is all over. We have it on Saturdays at the public library. We have it the Hoboken Library on Mondays nights um in person and virtual. Then Saturdays at the Jersey City Public Library, we just have those areas cover where we advocate for Gina. She teach um second level, she can share um what examples that you teach to those who wanna know sign language, the people that want to know our language, we teach them like ABC S in other words that they need to know for our deaf community. And I think for me too, Regina, I think the main thing that I learned being in your class is, is not just about learning sign, there's like a whole, you know, community and you know, certain way you sign and to, to know the culture, there's a culture to it. And, and for me is that, yeah, I have a deaf child but I want to learn her world because that we, yeah, she has a quickly place. She's part of the hearing world, but I wanna know her world. I wanna know how she communicate, how they do certain things. So, I think that's what that class has helped me.

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1013spotlightnj6_2024-10-13-12-35-16

We are talking with G A dance studio in Nutley and the Deaf Advocacy Group in Newark. Let's go back to you Gina and talk about what's ahead for your school. Um You know, the studio, I call it inclusive because we, we offer so many different options for, but I really want the access accessibility for like, you know, I wanna, I see kids in, you know, in wheelchair that we can do stretch with them and not just, you know, um the dance that we offer other activities. So I see a big thing for the studio for Gianna. Hopefully she'll go to college and then get her degree in dance and business and she could come back and run this thing. But she tells me she wants to become a chef, but that's a whole different conversation. Um But you know, it is, you know, we just take it one se one season at a time right now. This season just started and we still accepting people just come in and come and check us out. Then, you know, we open to um if we don't offer something, we're open to learn new things and make it happen at the studio and Tyson, you wanted to talk about the culture and black and white sign language. Yes, I'm just gonna be real brief about that. Um sign language is not universal. So just wanna let you know it's not universal. You um if you can recall back in when schools were segregated in the South, you had white schools and you have black schools, they were segregated when they came together as one, they told the black Children their signing was wrong. How is that? It was our culture. If you look at currently our language, our slang, our behavior and what we talk and IO so that's very critical. You know what I mean? Um If you church language, you know, sometimes the preacher may use a slang, it may not fit um A person that's speaking um normally um in, in, in, in a, in a white setting. It is totally different. You gotta know your background and know your culture and we teach everything we all a inclusive. We don't just teach black signing, we don't teach white sign, we teach sign language. Do you know the black one? We even have some people from um uh Pora Club that come to us, they're deaf. They port they wanna learn American sign language. So it's like a vice versa. It's a big community is really amazing. Um Last year I learned some new cool signs and, and I don't wanna sign, I don't wanna sign them wrong. But you know, it's really cool and it help them and we do a lot and we just advocate what we do and you also work with law enforcement and prosecutors. Yes, we work in law enforcement at the end of this, in the end of this month, we will be going to Atlantic City at the CT I training, um teaching the, the prosecutor's office, um sign language, how they can do when they do role playing and um understand the domestic violence sign language, the background, we go really in depth in the culture. So they can understand. Uh that's how I can work with the way the world is with mental illness and you're not sure what you have, but this is a great way to have in your tool box to be able to use to help um the world and, and like Gianna studio, um the vision that you have is hope for everyone.

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Owner Gina Thomas spoke to News 12’s Della Crews about the creation of the business and its goals.

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