Blog: How we set up successful lipreading classes
Seven steps to heaven… or rediscover lost skills and boost your self-confidence. Well, that’s what it feels like, heaven!
Because … our tiny group of trustees (at Central England Lipreading Support Trust) have set up 10 lipreading classes across Warwickshire and Birmingham, with three teachers and one just starting to train at City Lit this September.
Crash, bang, wallop … how did that happen?
It took one person with tenacity, vision and stubbornness to drive through the process of becoming a charity and persuading funders to part with their money. And here we are a few years later looking back and feeling, well, pretty darned good.
We have leaflets, posters, website, Facebook, events and support mornings all opening up possibilities for the future. We feel proud to say that despite our own challenges of deafness we have given hope and help to others who need it and they in turn have helped us.
You can read our previous article about how we did it. Get in touch if you want to come along to one of our classes.
Keen to get something started?
Maybe you are keen to get a group up and running? It doesn’t have to be a lipreading class, it can be a coffee morning, a hard of hearing group or a drop in session, something that helps the hearing loss community to unite around a common aim.
Take the seven steps:
- Find some like-minded people, they don’t necessarily have to have hearing loss.
- Talk to your local voluntary organisation, most councils have them.
- Start thinking how you can persuade funders to give you money.
- Get yourself someone who is not prepared to take ‘no’ for an answer, they can be your chairperson!
- Use organisations like Hearing Link to connect you with other groups.
- Get yourself a name, objectives and set up a meeting to devise a plan.
- Enjoy!
This blog was written by Shona Hudson from the Central England Lipreading Support Trust.