The founders of Deafventure tell us about their new outdoor adventure group for deaf people! (BSL)

Hi, my name is Naomi, I am a Freelance Trainee Sign Language Interpreter and I also work as a Communication Support Worker for The Manchester College.  I work full time, study and have a young family.

I co founded Deafventure with Grant who is a Communication Support Worker for The Manchester College.  He works full time, is studying BSL level 6 and has a young family too.

We are both hearing and have volunteered and worked in the Deaf community for the last 6 years in various roles including Operations Manager, CSW, Advocate Lead and Development Officer.

We founded Deafventure which is a free of charge outdoors active social group for ages 18+. Once a month we start the day with a hike followed by a social in a pub local to the area we are in.

The aim of this group is to get the community socialising more with each other, meeting new people, learning sign if they don’t know already and want to, gaining confidence in themselves and improving their mental health and wellbeing.

Grant had, for a long time, wanted to do ‘something’ with the Deaf community but wasn’t quite sure what exactly.  Not long after meeting, he discussed this with me, we both went away and thought about it.

I came back with four names, not telling him my favourite, (naturally he chose the same favourite!) and ‘Deafventure’ was born!  It happened quickly and smoothly because we are good friends and are both extremely passionate about our work, access for Deaf people, and improving mental health and wellbeing in general.

We consulted with Deaf friends and colleagues and then put the final bits into place, registering it as a CIC, obtaining insurance for our service users and volunteers as well as securing a bank account with the idea that we can apply for funding in the future.

This would be to expand our reach to Deaf people as we have had many people in the deaf community contact us from as far as Wales and Scotland showing an interest in attending but as it currently stands this group is ran voluntary by Grant and I so the hikes take place in more local areas to the Northwest.

It took a lot of thought to set up Deafventure in that we wanted to consult with the community first.  We wanted to find out what did they actually want to do as we wanted to deliver something that they would benefit from.

Having worked at Deaf charities previously we had an idea of which demographics had the most social provision and this tied in with the feedback which is where the idea of an 18+ group came from.

The feedback has been phenomenal.  We have only done two hikes at the time of writing this but the numbers have been better than we could have expected.  I think we had 27 attendees for our first hike and 38 for our second!  The feedback has been so nice to get.  Here are a couple of quotes we recorded:

“Thank you for arranging this walk, it’s been so good for me to get out, get some fresh air and exercise with other Deaf people”

“What a brilliant first event.  I was nervous about coming today as I don’t think my signing is too good but everyone has been so friendly and I have met some nice people”

“Today really helped with my confidence, I nearly didn’t come but I am so glad I did, when is the next one!?”

We want to keep Deafventure going really, so long as the people coming are getting something positive out of it, that is more than what we could wish for.

It would be amazing to secure funding in the future, this could be used for things like creating a website, helping with volunteers expenses and so on and helping Deaf people with travel costs if they live further out as well as hiking equipment.

We like any outdoor adventure and the members are giving us lots of ideas for the future which is great!  In terms of accessibility, our only criteria to attend the group is that you are either deaf or you are hearing with a minimum level 3 BSL (by Signature.) This was decided after much consultation and the reason behind it, is we want this group to remain as accessible as possible.

Although Grant and I as the coordinators are hearing, we are fluent in BSL and we want any volunteers or group members to be the same in that no matter who someone approaches, they can all communicate with each other on a fluent level.

It may be a ‘hearing-led’ group, but it is a group that prioritises what the Deaf community wants and involves them every step of the way.  Our current volunteers are also deaf.

For now we are working on our annual calendar however we do plan to attempt Snowdon in the next few months so watch out for news about that one!

Looking ahead to the future we hope to keep our members happy, to grow in size, and to gain funding to reach more people in the Deaf community.

People, please share with anyone you think might benefit from taking part in Deafventure!  It’s a no pressure, lovely friendly welcoming group.  It’s the perfect place to meet new friends and get some exercise in at the same time!

You can find out more about Deafventure here.