GDA news Going the Extra Mile (GEM) project 4 Congratulations to the deaf participants who completed their hearing awareness workshop in April. The workshop provided an opportunity to practise with the trainees how to use networking situations. With such an emphasis on effective communication, this can be particularly daunting for deaf job seeke Under the guidance of project developer and d role model, Reg Cobb, shortly after the worksh participant obtained a job offer and another completed a job interview. A third participant has gained a voluntary work placement and the fourth achieved a work placement at a prestigious local car showroom. The GEM Project supports individuals in Gloucestershire who, at the start of their journey, may feel a long way from ever achieving a place in education, training, employment or self employment, or volunteering. Using support which is personcentered and most importantly specialist, it seeks to overcome barriers. The GEM programme is a unique partnership of specialist community based organisations, including GDA, which is managed by Gloucestershire Gateway Trust on behalf of Gloucestershire County Council. The project is jointly funded by the Big Lottery Fund and the European Social Fund. For more information, please visit glosgem.org Deaf Awareness Talk At the end of May, GDA's Jenny Hopkins and Emma Jenkins gave an 'Understanding Deafness' talk to the Gloucester U3A group. More than 60 people attended and learned some of the different ways to meet the challenges of going deaf later in life. Many have now also made an appointment to try out our range of listening aid and visual alert equipment. Here's what one of their members, Ann Williams, later wrote to us: "Thank you both for such a helpful and useful day last Friday. All of our members I've seen since then found it so useful and helpful and we're truly grateful to you for the information with which you provided us." If you'd like to know more about the different equipment available that could help you at home, give us a call on 01452 372999.
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