Short Break Stories

NDCS Better Breaks for Deaf Young People & their Families

A story by The National Deaf Children's Society

We provided a weekend for families with deaf children aged 2-4 years with information sessions included education & technology.  We also provided a My Future weekend for deaf young people aged 16-20 years to meet, explore options for the future, & find out about support available when moving on in education/employment.

What NDCS Better Breaks for Deaf Young People & their Families did

National Deaf Children Society Scotland staff & deaf Youth Support Volunteers delivered both events. Our events calendar was emailed out to all members, available to view on our website & from the helpline. Our events are searchable on the ‘what’s on’ section of our website. Targeted emails were sent to members with deaf children & young people in the relevant age bracket, and a targeted postal mail out was done to those known to be interested in this type of event. The events were also advertised through The National Deaf Children's Society Scotland Facebook site.

Family Weekend in Stirling, the sessions for parents/carers included: an explanation of the education system, making the right choice of school, getting their child ready for school, and an introduction to deafness & communication, audiology, technology, understanding The National Deaf Children's Society and other services. A Speech & Language Therapist & Audiologist delivered specialist sessions. Deaf children & siblings were in a crèche so parents/carers could have a break and participate in the programme fully.

My Future Weekend in Aberfolye, classroom sessions covered My World of Work Website, apprenticeships, interview skills, communication support, university applications and relevant benefits. Skills Development Scotland & Action on Hearing Loss Scotland delivered specialist sessions. Outdoor team and confidence building activities included raft building and a ropes course. While information is not available from all parents/carers on what they did during their break, 1 parent told us she was attending a training course for work, 2 parents took the opportunity to have a weekend away & 1 parent was looking forward to a quieter weekend.

Travel costs were covered for My Future to ensure it wasn’t a barrier to attending. Travel buddy volunteers were available for those unable to travel independently.

“My Future event has given me a lot of confidence about leaving school, before I was worried if I can't cope on my own and I learned that there will be people there to help my education though support such as interpreters. I'm glad that I have attended, also I really enjoyed the fun activities and it has made our friendship more stronger and I feel really comfortable around them”.

“Thank you very much for organising our weekend away I had a lot of fun. I especially liked meeting new deaf people and having a go a new activities such as archery. The rooms were very comfortable, I liked the games room and playing cards with people my own age.

I feel more confident now since coming home and have applied for more jobs as a result. I thought the information sessions were very interesting. I didn't like that I couldn't get Wifi at the centre but had enough fun to take my mind off it.
Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to come along with you and for helping me with my travel.”
"Such a great weekend, meeting new parents and hearing experiences. I am very pleased we came along to this event as well as being more knowledgeable about technology on offer and information that will help me if faced with problems at school I have also met parents who I will keep in touch with as a result."

What The National Deaf Children's Society has learned

A number of deaf young people aged 16+ are still in need of support in the transition from school or college onto other destinations. National Deaf Children's Society's ‘core’ youth events are able to accept young people up to age 18 only, and this fund allowed us to extend the age range of applicants up to 20 years old.

Young people of this age group, and their parents and carers, identified the benefits of an event aimed at supporting them with this transition. For example, one parent said: “Young person A is getting ready to finish college at the moment and we are at a loss as to what to do next. Young person A is not very independent yet when it comes to finding work or college placements, I'm finding that I need to do most of the work in filling out applications etc...” . The events and feedback has given us useful data to inform our policy discussions with both local and national government around the barriers to deaf young people and have informed our thinking around resources available to professionals and young people at the point of transition.

Despite offering funding to cover travel costs, and having travel buddy volunteers available, we were unsuccessful in getting any applications from young people from the north of Scotland. Further targeted advertising and outreach work would be needed to try and rectify this in the future. However, we were still successful in attracting young people from a number of local authorities, with a mixture of urban and rural geographies.

There is an interest from young people in running more of these types of events in the future, and this event was enjoyed by those who attended it. Young people said: “It has been a great event while learning about my future, jobs, interviews etc”, “Great fun and really useful if you don't know what to do” and “Create more events like this!” National Deaf Children's Society will take this into consideration when planning our events programmes.
Top tips The National Deaf Children's Society's top tips for an organisation that wants to run a similar project
Tip 1:
Work in partnership where appropriate. The attendees benefited from the sessions run by an audiologist and a speech and language therapist at the Family Weekend.

The attendees benefited from the sessions run by Skills Development Scotland and Action on Hearing Loss at the My Future event. Some of the young people are now being supported to access further careers advice and assistance from these organisations.
Tip 2:
Be flexible with the advertising of the event. My Future is a new type of event for National Deaf Children's Society in Scotland, with a different age group from our core events. With a mixture of classroom and outdoor activities over a weekend it might seem a challenge to encourage young people to sign up for, but it was worth persevering with the promotion and advertising.
Tip 3:
If you are running an event with a new age group, be prepared to negotiate with young people on setting the ground rules, for example bedtimes. Also factor in enough time to ensure staff and volunteers have the correct checks and training for working with this different audience.

"How refreshing to meet other people with similar experiences and be able to talk so freely knowing they could understand your worries and concerns"

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