The Deaf Village North West opens ‘The White House,’ a residential for deaf adults

The School of Sign Language was established in 2006 in Blackburn and has since evolved into a thriving, successful business with the most recent opening of its Deaf Village.

Debra Cartlidge is the managing director who set up the business 16 years ago after she herself experienced communication barriers due to being hard of hearing. As Debra joined the deaf community, she was shocked by the amount of discrimination she witnessed and this inspired her to set up a business which has inclusivity at its core.

In 2020, due to rapid growth, the School of Sign Language relocated and opened Our Deaf Hub, which provides a huge range of advocacy and support services for Deaf clients. It is a place that is deaf led and open to the entire community.

They have since acquired further buildings and land and have become the first Deaf Village in Lancashire with their opening of the White House residential. It is a building made especially for Deaf residents to live in. It offers residential living for those aged 18+ and also provides a post 16 specialist institution.

The White House Residential officially opened on 29th April 2022 with their first clients moving in this month. The building itself is a brand new, state of the art, residential home based in Pleasington, a small village in Blackburn.

The founder, Debra Cartlidge, has won awards over the years for her commitment and dedication to helping the Deaf community after her own personal struggles as a hard of hearing person growing up in a ‘hearing world’.

The White House aims to provide a secure, stable, communal living environment for Deaf people with no communication barriers and its services have extended to offer more deaf people independent living skills, translation services, advocacy, digital skills, employability skills and so much more.

The White House’s Youth Group meet every Tuesday and Thursday with their staff where they offer them multiple types of support whether that be learning new skills, team building or just having fun.

You can find more information about the Deaf Village and their services here:
https://www.facebook.com/SchoolofSignLanguage/
https://www.schoolofsignlanguage.com/