You can now keep track of what we are up to on Twitter, including events, news articles and training.

HearFirst is delighted to be working in partnership with the charity, Alström Syndrome UK. Our job has been to develop a unique training programme to raise awareness of this very rare recessively inherited condition.

Because of its rarity, many GP's and other health professionals have not come across Alström before - or have never heard of it. Alström Syndrome UK is concerned about the treatment some people receive whilst in hospitals and the continued late diagnosis of many patients.

More needs to be done to help health professionals learn more about the syndrome. The initial awareness training dates have been set for the 1st April & 6th July and is aimed at all health professionals.

Greater Manchester Police

In order to “Fight Crime and Protect People”, it is vital the police can communicate with everyone in society, including Deaf BSL users. Our 1 day Introduction to British Sign Language course was just the job for Greater Manchester Police. The course has been rolled out to many staff in several divisions. This is what participant Chris Harrison, Detective Constable at the Economic Crime Section, Fraud Unit in Ashton Under Lyne had to say:

Just a few lines to say how much I enjoyed the training you gave us yesterday. You were right, I was amazed at how much I'd learned in a day, and had fun doing it too! That was one of the best presented, most interesting and informative courses I have been on for many years, and I hope I get an opportunity to use what you taught us, I will keep my folder handy and I will pull it out from time to time to practice!

To find out more about the work we are doing with Greater Manchester Police, contact us. (Added 15th September 2009)

Bradford District Care Trust

Julie Donaldson is the Corporate Services Co-ordinator at Bradford District Care Trust. She spent a lot if time choosing the right course for her staff and has gone for a programme of full day training courses which we have tailored for them. The morning is spent learning about the range deafness, communication and technology deaf people use. In the afternoon we focus on British Sign Language and teach participants a range of basic signs to help them in their work. The course has been a big success……….of course! The evaluation forms are always very positive but it is nice to find out what’s said on the grapevine! After the course a participant told Julie…. “it was the best training I have been to…..”

To find out more about this course or how we can tailor a course for you please contact us. (Added 15th September 2009)

Manchester City Council

What did we do: Trained 147 staff in basic British Sign Language over 4 days.
Who to: Passenger Transport Assistants
Why: To enable them to use basic signs to meet and greet children who communicate using British Sign Language.
What did they say: Iain Larkin, General Manager, Community Transport Services, Environment & Operational Support said: Your course was received wonderfully well, everyone really enjoyed it. I don't think any course we have done has had such positive reception. They will be talking about it for a long time to come.

To learn the BSL alphabet or some basic signs for yourself click here to go to our You Tube channel (Added 15th September 2009)

Salford City Academy

We continue to enjoy working with Year 8 and 9 pupils from Salford City Academy. The pupils ‘opt in’ to study basic British Sign Language as part of their enrichment programme. Over a 6 week block of 90 minute sessions the pupils learn signs around family, weather, colours, numbers, days of the week, question signs, food and much more. Well done Salford City Academy – you are a clever lot!

Stop Press: The pupils are enjoying this so much, some have opted to repeat the sessions again this half term! Natalie Ingham, Enrichment Coordinator says, “they want to be A* PUPILS!” (Added 15th September 2009)

Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman

Successful work relationships are important in all organisations. Communication between staff is a key factor. When deaf and hearing people work together it can be a real challenge on both sides.

We recently trained staff from the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman to help them improve team and communication skills with their new deaf colleague. Following on from the training this is what she said:

Everyone seems keen to involve me as an equal colleague and to ensure that I know what is happening (e.g. with verbal announcements) and I think my manager is learning about how to adapt to having a deaf employee too. We have a team lunch usually once a month and people have been thinking more about the environments at venues and how this affects me. They all want me to teach them some signs...and set something up for short sessions! I think my manager is looking into whether staff could go on BSL level 1 courses and if not they are keen for me to do some short sessions to give them some basics. I've also noticed my colleagues have approached me more and I think people feel less nervous about coming up and talking to me, so the training has had a positive impact. I have also been explaining about textphones and how typetalk works, and how to use my screenphone to take calls if I am out of the office. Another key issue is about lipreading and people realising how tiring this can be for me and how easy it can be for me to miss information.

DID YOU KNOW? If you have a deaf member of staff and think deaf awareness training would help their hearing colleagues, you can gain funding for this from the Government Scheme Access to Work. Please contact us for further details. (Added 15th September 2009)

Beaver Road Primary School, Didsbury, Manchester

Thanks to HearFirst tutors, Kate and Mickey for their excellent work delivering a 1 day intensive British Sign Language Course to teaching assistants at Beaver Rd Primary School………

“I would like to thank you for the training we received today. Mickey and Kate were amazing and made our day a complete success. We received top quality training and had fun throughout!! They made it so easy for us to follow by using the techniques they put in place, and made us feel confident enough to carry through what we had learnt in role play situations. We learnt far more than we had expected to learn in one day and it has inspired most of us to want to learn further skills. I personally would now like to eventually go on to completing level one BSL, to enable me to communicate confidently with future pupils who are hearing impaired. Once again many thanks and a big, big thank you to Mickey and Kate.” Sarah Herbert, Beaver Road Primary

To find out more about how we can help in your school contact us. (Added 15th September 2009)

Award Success

Julie Ryder (HearFirst Director/Founder) has won the regional stage of the National Sound Barrier Star Awards in recognition for the work she continues to do in improving communication. The competition, run by Specsavers Hearing Centres, in association with Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, recognises deaf people who overcome their disability to go on and achieve great things. Julie now goes on to the National finals. (Added 15th September 2009)

HearFirst Directors are invited to the Queens Garden Party

Matthew and Julie Ryder enjoyed a lovely day at the Queens Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday 14 July 2009, in recognition of their work. They received the nomination following a week long visit to the company by Jim Law (Deputy Director for Business Enterprise at BERR).

'A great big thank you to Jim for nominating us. The day was just perfect and we really did enjoy every minute of this prestigious invitation, said Julie Ryder. (Added 15th September 2009)

Congratulations to Tracy Arnold from Norfolk Probation Service who completed a very intensive 1 day course and gained Unit 101 of CACDP Level 1 in British Sign Language. The recommended time to complete the Unit is 10 hours and is usually taught 2 hours a week over 5 weeks to give learners time to absorb the information and practice the signs. Tracy wanted the qualification quickly and our tutor Kate Brierley did a fantastic job preparing the materials and tutoring Tracy. Well done to you both! (Added 1st May 2009)

Hyndburn Borough Council front line staff enjoyed a half day deaf awareness session. The workshop, organised by Diversity Officer Shaheen Amaan, included tips on better communication and useful equipment. It also highlighted the range of deaf people that staff may come into contact with and the communication methods they may use. (Added 1st May 2009)

Bradnet (Formerly known as Asian Disability Network) is a user-led organisation that seeks to empower and enable disabled people to lead their chosen lifestyle by providing appropriate services such as:

• person-centred outreach and advocacy
• one-to-one support and welfare rights advice
• help in education and employment.

(Added 1st May 2009)

Ooooh I say......we have been joined in our business (for 1 week only!) by top London civil servant Jim Law, who is none other than Deputy Director for Enterprise in the Department for Business.

As you can see Jim could not wait to swap his brief case for Dexter Puppet (our sister company's signing puppet). The purpose of the visit was to shadow Julie the founder of HearFirst and gain a valuable insight into the day to day running of a small business. Jim sat in on a Disability Equality and Awareness course for Environmental Health Officers from Rossendale Borough Council and a 1 day BSL session at Manchester University.

Jim met Julie when she won through to the final in the Barclays Trading Places Awards.

Although his job is normally in London, he said he enjoyed the chance to get out and about and see how it was done, 'but coming into a business like this brings it home how hard some people work. It is an eye opener. This week has been very worthwhile, it has been brilliant'. (Added 1st May 2009)

HearFirst has teamed up with Sunsurfer Arts / Consultancy and Arts About Manchester’s In Touch Project to offer a series Arts focused Disability Equality and Awareness Training Sessions. The sessions are suitable for anyone working within an ‘Arts’ environment. Successful sessions were held at Manchester Museum in January and February ‘09.

Future courses can be delivered either at your Arts venue or alternatively individuals can access one of the ‘open’ courses being held throughout 2009 in Manchester. (Added 1st May 2009)

Housing Associations working with HearFirst

We regularly work with the whole spectrum of staff from Housing Associations across the UK. Feedback continues to be excellent. Please contact us for details of how we can bring joy to your staff and train them in British Sign Language, deaf and disability awareness!

The plumbers and plasters from Housing Pendle were especially satisfying to work with as initially they were resistant to training but word soon spread that HearFirst training wasn’t like the ‘usual’ and they made some fantastic contributions. Well done Housing Pendle!

Chad McGitchie, Visitor Services Manager had been ‘HearFirsted’ in a previous job and wanted to bring some of our magic to his new colleagues at Whitworth Art Gallery. We delivered basic British Sign Language Training to the majority of staff over 2 days.

Many staff had their appetite whetted and want to go on to do more BSL. This enthusiasm is fantastic and means that Deaf visitors can expect a better experience at the Gallery and staff are better equipped to meet Visitors needs.

Following the success of this course we have gone on to deliver further training in other departments of The University of Manchester. (Added January 2009)

Congratulations to all those front line staff who did so well with the British Sign Language Training over the summer. (Added January 2009)

What a privilege it is to be working with the Forestry Commission. We are delivering tailored 1 day British Sign Language Courses in many beautiful locations across the UK.

Staff are quick on the uptake and love to learn the signs relating to their work. The aim of the nationwide program is to improve communication skills across the UK in relation to Deaf visitors. (Added January 2009)

Well we had to behave ourselves on this suite of courses!! Up to now Deaf people across Manchester have been getting away with signing all sorts in front of the Police and them being none the wiser. Not anymore! Front line officers and staff in several divisions have received basic British Sign Language training. On a more serious note this will help when reporting crimes and in many other areas of police work. (Added January 2009)

The National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) is the national charity dedicated to creating a world without barriers for deaf children and young people.

Raena Raja is the BME Project Officer whose has the responsibility of ensuring more Black, Minority and Ethnic Families can access NDCS information and services. Part of the project has involved recruiting minority language interpreters to work with the NDCS Family Officers to ensure information can be correctly relayed.
We have delivered Deaf Awareness training sessions across the UK to the language interpreters so they are more aware of deaf issues and feel more confident and professional working around deaf children.

Ayan Adan, Language Interpreter who attended the London session said, “I have learnt a lot today that could be useful when communicating with families of deaf children. I really enjoyed the training sessions. It was all very good.”
(Added January 2009)