Nicholas’ Update
Welcome return of our LinkUp support groups
February saw the welcome return of LinkUp support groups after a two-month break. The weekend in Cookstown, Northern Ireland, welcomed a bumper participant group of 20, made up of 11 deafened people and nine family members.
Initial feedback has included this from one hearing attendee, “I was expecting to be bored over the weekend, but boy was I wrong!” A real testament to the power of including ‘significant others’.
A huge thank you goes out to volunteers James, Martin and Lisa, and staff Sue, Claire and Hannah for putting on such a great group. James and Martin are benefiting from the trainee facilitator programme and will be featuring in a number of LinkUp support groups over the year. Great start folks!
Have your say on Community Days
Hearing Loss Community Days also picked up again in February, with event held near Edinburgh, Scotland, and Chelmsford, Essex.
Many thanks to Ann, Kirsty, Beryl and Ginny for helping to bring these events to the local community. Check out more details, reactions and photos on our dedicated Microsoft Teams Community Days page.
With only two community days remaining in March, please make sure you have completed the volunteer survey if you haven’t already done so by clicking here.
Hearing Support Sessions
Our Hearing Support Sessions were back with a new addition to the offer! We held days at Edinburgh’s Drumbrae library and Lauriston’s Audiology Service, while further west in East Renfrewshire, we launched the first of six new monthly sessions in Newton Mearns in partnership with Voluntary Action,
South of the border, peer support volunteers were out in force at the Royal Worcestershire Hospital and Mycenae House community hub near Greenwich in London.
Thank you to Mary, Alison, Shona, Paul, Merleen, Ann, Catherine, Kirsty, Elaine, Charles and May for volunteering your time and experience in your local communities.
Helpdesk
As we approached the end of the month (February), the Helpdesk has received a further 25 enquiries, and been contacted by 18 people on the LiveChat function.
Technology has dominated as a topic while enquiries about lipreading accounted for 12%. Huge thanks to the 15 volunteer responders who have been active this month!
In all, it has been another great month and a great continuation of our work – all made possible by your amazing contributions!