When I was a lonely deaf teenager, one thing that made those years more bearable was HiYa.
HiYa, which if I am remembering correctly, stood for "Hearing Impaired Young Adults," was a social organization formed by a resource teacher in my mainstream program. She saw all of us young deaf and hard of hearing teens, often lonely and isolated living in different towns. So she (who I shall identify only as "Mrs. G.") launched HiYa, to bring together a group of us from time to time.
We did simple things like get together at members' homes, play pool, go roller skating, and mostly we just hung around. The boys checked out the girls, and vice versa. Once in a rare while, there was a bigger activity that would involve entire families. More than 20 years later, I still remember the names of the other preteens and teenagers at HiYa – whom I shall identify only by their initials: S.B. S.Y., A.H., L.U., R.M., B.P., J.S., and M.D.
There is no such thing as a HiYa where we live. We do have the national Junior NAD, but the Junior NAD web site implies that its primary purpose is political and leadership grooming of young people - not socialization. I attended one Junior NAD conference (in New Jersey) as a teen.
In our area, we have something called "Deaf Teen Night" at a local teen center. It is not the same thing as HiYa, but it serves the same purpose - a way for deaf teenagers to get together and socialize.
