Find out about East Midlands charity Deaf-initely Women

The idea to establish Deaf-initely Women all started during a birthday meal. Ten deaf friends were celebrating being deaf women, as well as discussing the problems that they encountered in their daily lives.

They acknowledged how fortunate they were to have each other for emotional support, which gave them so much strength and resilience in their daily lives. They soon began to realise that other deaf and hard of hearing women needed this support too.

They started to create an organisation that could help and respond to deaf women’s needs. The idea has grown, bringing together deaf and hard of hearing women across Derbyshire, who may have felt isolated, to support each other.

So what is Deaf-initely Women? It’s a charity run by deaf women, providing services and support for deaf women in Derby, Derbyshire and surrounding areas.

Deaf-initely Women encourages women with hearing loss, including deaf women whose first language is sign language, deafblind and hard of hearing women to learn new skills, make new friends and support each other. The charity includes deaf women of all ages from aged 18+ and with varying degrees of deafness and communication needs.

The main aim is to build deaf women’s emotional and financial resilience to become more independent at work, at home and in society. Isolation can be life changing and life limiting. Deaf-initely Women aims to empower all deaf women who have experienced discrimination or isolation because of their hearing loss. Deaf-initely Women’s aims are to: 

• Improve the wellbeing of deaf women.
• Challenge discrimination.
• Build the confidence of deaf women.
• Increase deaf women’s knowledge and skills. 
• Raise deaf women’s awareness of keeping safe. 
• Support deaf women to gain work experience and skills.

Deaf-initely Women’s work was recently recognised by the East Midlands Charity Awards 2020, where the charity received a Highly Commended award for ‘Small Charity, Big Impact.’

Deaf-initely Women provides peer led services, giving each other emotional strength to help deaf women cope with their working and family lives. The charity also provides opportunities for deaf women to gain confidence and experience new things.

Deaf women can have limited access to inclusive activities, events and accessible information. Deaf-initely Women’s services and support aims to enable deaf women to learn and have access to things that other non-deaf people take for granted, through various events, workshops and courses.

At all of these events, full communication support is provided to enable equal access through British Sign Language interpreters, speech-to-text operators and hearing loops. Deaf-initely Women aims to increase deaf women’s confidence and knowledge in a safe and accessible environment. 

Deaf-initely Women provide a range of inclusive accessible events, workshops and courses, aiming to increase and improve deaf women’s self-confidence, self-belief, well-being, health, skills and knowledge, along with reducing social isolation by facilitating social connectedness.

The events, workshops and courses are delivered by deaf and hard of hearing women themselves. Basic communication and BSL courses, lip reading, cooking, safety, mindfulness, yoga, macramé and crafts are just some of the many types of events that have taken place. 

Deaf-initely Women also provides supported volunteer and work experience opportunities for deaf women. Volunteer opportunities range from assisting in the office and at events, to social media and marketing. Volunteer roles enable deaf women to develop confidence in their work skills and interact with other deaf women.

Freelance work opportunities include assisting with organising events and workshops and delivering events as a tutor or teacher. This enables deaf women to share their skills and interests with other deaf women, whilst also continuing to develop their own skills. 

Deaf-initely Women has a positive impact upon deaf women’s lives, increasing their self-confidence, knowledge in learning new skills and information, plus feeling more connected with other deaf women. Providing these opportunities with accessible communication support enables deaf women to socially interact, meet and support each other, alongside experiencing and learning something new.   

Find out more about Deaf-initely Women on their website here.