New Deaf-friendly Forest School GDYZ volunteer leader Rosemary Morgan is behind an exciting new outdoor initiative taking place during this summer, which is especially for deaf and hard of hearing children and young adults, along with any hearing siblings or best friends. The Deaf-friendly Forest School offers quite an exceptional opportunity for young people to develop their relationship with the outdoors and natural environment, and within a total communication environment. Activities across the four days will include den building, bug hunting, cooking on an open fire and much more. The Deaf-friendly Forest School will take place on four dates: 28th July, 4th August, 18th August and 31st August. The cost is £20 per child/young adult per day, and this includes transport to and from the venue, with pick-up points in Cirencester and at GDA, all materials, and of course covers the tailored programme of activities under trained and qualified staff. (Subsidised places are also available, so please do ask if you feel your family might qualify for funding support). We anticipate high demand and there are a limited number of places. If you are interested, please contact GDA as soon as possible for more information on 01452 372999 or email admin@gda.org.uk. EU Referendum On Thursday 9th June, GDA invited our deaf community to attend a special BSL information session about June's EU Referendum. Responding to calls from the deaf community, GDA put on the event for 45 people who came along to find out more about the arguments for and against the Leave and Remain campaigns. Hosted by GDA's Project Developer, Reg Cobb, the afternoon looked at the pros and cons for each side on a number of different topics including economy, disability rights, travel and immigration. Reg said "The response to our EU referendum event was extremely positive with a good turnout. This was a particularly tricky topic to present because clear information wasn't readily available for anyone but this just proved how particularly isolated the deaf community are when it comes to accessing mainstream information." YouChoose In June, GDA invited commissioners from across health and social care to the launch of our new YOUChoose peer support personal assistant service. This new service is designed to match deaf and hard of hearing clients with personal assistants who may themselves be deaf or hard of hearing and so are uniquely well qualified and understanding to their needs, especially around communication. YOUChoose has been a great success already in the Midlands under another deaf charity, Action Deafness. GDA is delighted to have been selected as one of four partners which Action Deafness has now chosen to help roll out the service across the UK. If you are deaf or hard of hearing and would like information about becoming either a client or a personal assistant, please get in touch with the GDA office using any of the contact details at the beginning of this newsletter. 5
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