Why D.E.A.F?

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In January 2007 pro active members of the Swindon deaf community came together and noted that Swindon’s service providers  are falling behind in meeting strategies to provide appropriate services for deaf people, for example –

 

- Deaf people have no communication access to social services and Social Services for Deaf People does not exist in Swindon

 

- There is no youth service for young deaf people

 

- There is no community centre for deaf people

 

- Provision of a ‘one stop shop’ facility for deaf people is not forthcoming

 

- Deaf service users have no access to the health service as outlined by several P.C.T.’s policies

 

- Sure Start’s programmes for children as outlined by ‘Every Child Matters’, including cultural and language developments have been almost non existent for deaf children

 

- Very little Social Care provision

 

- Poor access to Mental Health services resulting in a diminishment of well being

 

Analysis

 

Analysis has shown that approximately one in seven of Swindon’s population have degrees of Deafness (there are 12,000 people in Swindon and an additional 9,000 within 30minutes from outside Swindon who have varying hearing loss).

 

In the light of these facts, these founder members created D.E.A.F., in order to address the above issues and to channel their concerns for better services to the benefit of themselves, their families, friends and all local hearing impaired people.

Many cities - Birmingham’s Institute for the Deaf (BID); Gloucester Deaf Association; and others such as in Bristol; Oxford; Salisbury; Action Deafness in Leicestershire, Deaf Direct in Worcester have Deaf Users Forums that are regional service providers whose working relationships with their local health, social services, education, employment and training have provided strategies to deal with the issues as outlined by the Government’s new policies in recent years. It would be a tremendous step forward for the deaf community of Swindon to achieve this goal.

 

We are anxious to move ahead and our Mission is to address a wide range of new and far reaching issues affecting local services users who are deaf and hard of hearing e.g.

 

- Promoting effective communication and improving access to services

 

- Increasing status and participation of deaf and hard of hearing people from diverse backgrounds

 

- Providing specialist support (Learners programme to Skill Level 3 and above from Community & Learning Services)

 

- Forming partnerships with stakeholders (health, social services, education, employment & training)

 

- Bring about continuous improvement in the quality and value of the services we offer

 

D.E.A.F is currently seeking immediate core funding to recruit an experienced and proactive development and funding coordinator, an administrative staff and an office.