You may remember that in 2022 MDC joined together with Bolton Deaf Society and Walthew House in Stockport to fund a piece of research, called 'What D/deaf People Want'. The aim of the research was to check with D/deaf people across Greater Manchester about what their updated priorities were post-Covid, and to ask what they want local services to look like in future.
The trustees and the management team at MDC are using information gathered in the research to help plan for the future. This includes looking for funding to support us to work towards the priorities that D/deaf people told us about.
We have recently been successful in applying for two grants that will help MDC to work towards these priorities:
1. The research showed very clearly that most D/deaf people still want face-to-face services and activities. Although many more services and activities in wider society have been offered online since Covid, this has only created extra communication barriers for our community.
This has been helpful for MDC to know – we understand that keeping our centre open as a base for our services and as an accessible place where D/deaf people can meet and socialise is an absolute priority.
We applied to the Our Manchester Voluntary and Community Sector grant fund for a 3-year award to contribute to the running costs of our building, and towards some of our core staffing costs. We are delighted that this application has been successful. It is great news for MDC and for the D/deaf community and represents a huge step forward in keeping our centre open for the next 3 years.
2. Many D/deaf people told us in the research that physical and mental health are challenges, and that they want mainstream services to be more accessible. This includes healthcare (for example, GPs, hospitals) and also leisure facilities, for example sports centres, gyms, community sports clubs, etc, which help people to stay fit and healthy.
We have recently been successful in applying for an ‘Inclusion Grant’ for a project which we will undertake in partnership with Bolton Deaf Society and Walthew House. The aim of the project is to take the next step from the ‘What D/deaf people want’ research, by involving deaf people in conversations with mainstream service providers about how they would like to see things change, to improve access for the D/deaf community.
The project will trial a method of bringing D/deaf people together with mainstream service providers. During the project D/deaf people will visit 9 mainstream settings (for example, hospital services, mental health services, leisure centres). D/deaf people will assess the setting and inform the service provider about any barriers that a D/deaf person may face (access, booking systems, communication, physical environment, etc), and what improvement would look like for them. We will ask service providers to commit to making a plan to show what changes are achievable in the short term, the medium term or the long term. It will be an opportunity also for D/deaf people to learn about what challenges service providers may face in improving access, as we will ask for any difficulties in implementing changes to be explained.
The project will run for 1 year. At the end we hope to show that we have developed a method that works and that can be upscaled in future years so that D/deaf people’s views are taken into account across many more settings.
The funding for the project has been given by the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership via GMCVO. We are one of six organisations who have been selected to receive the Inclusion Grant and, as part of the project, representatives from each of the six organisations will meet and learn from each other about the methods that they are trialling.
Keep an eye open in future newsletters for updates regarding our Inclusion Grant project and other work that MDC is doing to improve access for D/deaf people in mainstream society.
For more information (English only) about the Inclusion Grant programme and to see the other organisations which have been selected, visit the GMCVO website:
