Services update by Nicholas
Welcome to my September update from the Peer Support Team.
It has been an extremely busy month of attending Community Days, making final preparations for our first online Helpful Hour and continuing to provide our wide range of services including LinkUp support groups and Helpdesk. Read on for more information.
Hearing Loss Community Days
Two more Hearing Loss Community Days were held in September bringing us (almost) to the halfway point of the year, with 14 out of 30 events taken place.
Across the 14 events, we had 18 volunteers attend with a further six volunteers trained and ready to go.
As you can see from the attendance numbers (above), we are planting acorns to grow oak trees. As reputation of this services grows, we will start to attract more members of the public and increased interest from guest exhibitors too.
Huge thanks to everyone for embracing the role and the concept of the days. They will certainly evolve in time, and your attendance and input will be invaluable for that!
For more information and photos of the days, head to the Hearing Link Services Volunteer Teams channel and select Community Days. Huge thanks to our colleagues in the Community Support Team for organising these events, and to everyone for volunteering and making the days so welcoming and helpful.
Click here for the remaining dates and get in touch if you would like to volunteer.
LinkUp support groups
Huge thanks in advance to the whole team – Helen, Gordon, Merleen and Paul – who volunteered at our LinkUp support group at The Grange this month.
As you can see from the photographs, there were lots of happy faces at the end of the weekend.
Here, is a reminder of some of YOUR feedback after attending LinkUp support groups this year so far:
“I felt everything went well.”
“I just felt it was all well thought out and everything ran very smoothly. I can’t think of anything that needed changed.”
“It was a very positive experience for me even after attending lots of LinkUps. I learn something new every time!”
“I think the setup/format was really good and I could see a lot of hard work was done before to make it the success it was.”
“Extremely helpful to meet the staff beforehand and to hear something about what to expect.”
Our next LinkUp Support groups will take place at The Grange in October and then Scotland in November, before we return to Northern Ireland in 2024.
Helpdesk
Our Helpdesk has had an excellent first six months of the financial year. In this period, 31 different Helpdesk Responders were able to use their lived or professional experience to help others 181 times.
The range of subjects are listed above with two topics clearly dominating – technology and hearing aids.
Helpdesk responders had replied to five or six enquiries in this period, on average. Many thanks again to everyone who volunteers on this rewarding service.
Please remember that you can signpost others to this valuable service. You can use the short URL hearinglink.org/ask. This takes the enquirer directly to our webform.
Alternatively, if you would like a supply of our QR Helpdesk cards or a Helpdesk poster for your local library or audiology department, please email enquiries@hearinglink.org and we will arrange for a bundle to be sent out.
If you have any questions about volunteering roles, please contact Nicholas or Alison.