National Deaf Children’s Society

The National Deaf Children’s Society: who are we?

We are the leading charity for deaf children and young people. We are dedicated to creating a world without barriers for deaf children and young people.

We give expert support on childhood deafness, raise awareness, and campaign for deaf children and young people’s rights, so they have the same opportunities as their hearing peers.

Our team works across the UK to develop partnerships with organisations to support them to create accessible opportunities for deaf young people aged 14 to 25, through volunteering, work experience, apprenticeships and employment.

Why are partnerships needed?

Our current campaign is called Deaf Works Everywhere. The drive of the campaign is to get more deaf young people into work – and into jobs that inspire them. We’re fighting for better career support, more work experience and volunteering opportunities, and challenging expectations of what deaf young people can achieve.

A report created for the campaign highlights that deaf young people felt that aspirations around their future careers were lower than those for their hearing peers.

Inevitably, some deaf young people had low aspirations themselves about what they could achieve.

Often deaf young people feel that they cannot work within certain industries. In the report, a young person was asked – Can a deaf person be a midwife? The response was - No. When asked why, the young person replied: “Because we are deaf, it would be too noisy.”

Deaf people can be midwives, and that’s why Deaf Works Everywhere is so important.

Without increased opportunities for deaf young people to build skills that support transition to adulthood, and without the chance to work in volunteering roles, in which they can gain confidence and experience, we cannot raise deaf young people’s aspirations to be able to go for the job they dream of.

That is where partnerships come in. We help organisations, like yours, to offer accessible and inclusive opportunities to deaf young people. This not only opens pathways to deaf young people, but also gives you access to a talented young workforce who may not have had the chance to engage with your programmes, previously.

For the full document please download the attached document

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