Subject - Drop-In at Manchester Deaf Centre

Posted : (Tuesday 8th September 2009 ) By - jess (Registered User)

Manchester Deaf Centre has been serving residents of Greater Manchester since 1846 originally on Grosvenor Street, in the building that now houses Trof at the Deaf Institute and now in Crawford House adjacent to the RNCM where we have been since 1975.

The Centre is a major provider of services to deaf people throughout Greater Manchester and a respected provider of training courses in British Sign Language and Deaf Awareness. We also run a variety of social activities that bring hearing and deaf users together and make our facilities available for hire to the local community.

Many of our users are isolated and vulnerable and need a safe place to access support and to keep active. The Centre is used by around 500 people each week who are either profoundly deaf, deaf-blind, hard of hearing or who suffer from tinnitus. Our Youth Club welcomes children from age 5 and our Senior Citizens Group has members into their 80s. Most of our users communicate using British Sign Language (BSL) as their first language.

Over the last 30 years the work of the Deaf Centre has developed enormously and there are many more services that it provides and activities that are demanded of it which the current facilities are unable to adequately service. Our current facilities are old fashioned and badly outdated. We are therefore planning a major refurbishment and redevelopment of the space to create a brighter and more welcoming venue and to enable a range of new activities to take place. We began a fundraising campaign a few months ago and are delighted to have won support from a number of trusts.

We would like to invite you to visit the Centre on Friday 11 September to find out more about what we do and the services we offer the local community. We shall be receiving a cheque in support of our appeal from Deputy Lieutenant Paul Goddard on behalf of the Greater Manchester Lieutenancy and felt this would provide an informal opportunity for you to meet us and see the current facilities and planned improvements, some of which are already underway.

I do hope you can drop in anytime between 4-6pm. Please note there will be a short Welcome and Introduction to the Centre’s activities at 5.15pm.