Gemma Sills: Online activities (for all Deaf people!) from Gloucestershire Deaf Association

Photo: Reg and Yvonne Cobb.

To join in, wherever you are, head  over to the GDA Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/GDAGlos/ to follow along/join in!

These are uncertain and tricky times for everyone but none more so than our deaf and hard of hearing communities.

I work for GDA, a charity supporting deaf, hard of hearing and deafened children, young people and adults living in Gloucestershire and the surrounding areas.

Over the last few weeks our small team has been working round the clock to ensure that daily government updates as well as additional information regarding the Coronavirus situation, has been accessible to the people who we support who use British Sign Language (BSL) as their first and preferred language.

What GDA has always done well is bringing together a community.  Back in the ‘good old days’ of being able to meet up with people, we held regular quiz nights which were totally inclusive and always brought together an audience of BSL users, hard of hearing and hearing folk. There’s nothing like a bit of plasticine or a paper aeroplane to break down a communication barrier!

While we can’t carry on as normal for the time being, it’s really important to GDA that we do our best to continue that sense of community that we’ve become known for.

So for the last few Saturdays we’ve been hosting Facebook lives with Reg and Yvonne Cobb – appropriately dubbed the Deaf Phil and Holly, for an hour of chat and fun on their sofa. Coming up, we’re delighted to also be welcoming some guest presenters to the sofa, more on that coming soon.

On Saturday 21^st March we hosted our first virtual quiz which was a great success, with people from all over the country joining in in a bid to get their hands on the prizes – £30 for the winner, a much coveted toilet roll for 2^ndplace and a still very valuable sheet of toilet roll for 3^rd place! Isolation has never been so lucrative! The virtual BSL quiz will be returning for another Saturday night on the 2^nd May at 7pm, live on the GDA Facebook page, and we promise it’ll be another fun Saturday night in.

In the meantime GDA is continuing to have a virtual presence with a range of other activities including wellbeing tips, signed bedtime children stories on Tuesdays and Thursdays, weekly employment chats and virtual lessons to learn some BSL every Thursday. On top of that we are reaching out to our deaf and hard of hearing friends with a provision of remote services, such as remote BSL interpreting.

These times may be unprecedented and they are testing organisations, but we are adapting just like everyone else, and like the real Phil and Holly, we will continue to offer a sense of community and support to the people who need us the most.

To join in, wherever you are, head  over to the GDA Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/GDAGlos/ to follow along/join in!

Gemma Sills is hearing and has been working for GDA for the last 7 and a bit years, as the charity’s External Relations Manager, helping to share the message about all the amazing work GDA is doing to support D/deaf people across the county.