Sammi Johnson tells us about co-founding new charity ‘Children of Deaf Parents Midlands’ (BSL)

I am proud to introduce a new charity that was set up late last year and launched earlier on this year called ‘Children of Deaf Parents Midlands.’ It was set up by two cofounders – myself, Sammi Johnson – and Sara Woodman-Worrell.

The name of the charity is conveniently shortened to ‘CODP Midlands’ and it is the second branch created for CODPUK (Children of Deaf Parents UK) as the first one is based in the Southeast.

If you’re wondering how it all started, we need to go back to the Covid period. Back then Sara set up a group called Midlands Deaf Parents on Facebook, with the intention to encourage parents to meet up at Soft play events monthly in different areas and share parenthood tips. Sara felt there was a real lack of events for Midlands based deaf parents to meet with their children.

I am Vice Chair for Birmingham and District Deaf Childrens Society (BDDCS) and this was a role that had always been central in her life until I recently had my own hearing twin boys and I felt I would also like to create something that was accessible for Deaf Parents and their children – whether they are hearing or deaf.

So as I am based in Birmingham, I suggested to Sara – who is based in Derby – that we should set up a ‘charity’ as ‘Children of Deaf Parents’ to get our plans recognised.

We came to an agreement with CODPUK for us to set up as their second branch and that’s how it all started!

It is hoped that other places in the UK will follow suit and set up co branches within CODPUK so we can all work together – as there really is power in numbers! We have welcomed three new committee members and we are looking forward to working together as a team to make everything possible for this charity and its future.

We were delighted to host a CODP Launch Party back in May and it was a great success. We had 17 families from all over the Midlands attending which we considered to be a great start!

We understand it will be slow to develop at first to get better especially as we need funding to make our events happen. The committee members will support us to offer many ideas and work together to create plans too.

We have lots of fantastic ideas in store and in the next year we will aim to host events as well carry out fundraising to ensure the community continues to benefit from the charity.

There was a joint camping event with both branches over a weekend in the summer. I (Sammi) took my family to this back in August, we all felt it was a great experience and really overwhelming.

It was so rewarding to see such a great number of families – it was actually over 40 families who attended and we all had a great time. I would like to say a huge thank you to Philippa from the Southeast as well as the other committee members who did a smashing job to make it wonderful weekend. I learnt a lot from this too.

We truly believe this charity is great opportunity for deaf parents to attend gatherings, share tips and socialise as well as there bring great benefits for our kids who live with bilingual languages. This encourages them to be aware that they are not alone in both worlds, the deaf or hearing!

CODP Midlands aims to find the funds to offer further events like workshops which can aid and support social communication for both parents and children. We aim for family events to be more inclusive and to encourage kids understanding of their own unique ‘CODA’ identities.

You can find us on the following social media platforms. We look forward to meeting your family soon!

Facebook: Children of Deaf Parents Midlands

Instagram: codp.midlands

Email: codp.midlands@gmail.com