My NDCS Week :)

So in the last week or so I've finished the mass panic of A Level exams and am finally free of school -which seems like a mixed blessing!

This means summer has finally started and it looks like its going to be another "NDCS Summer" again! This time last summer I was off on my second NDCS YAB residential and then straight up to the Lake District to spend a week doing the John Muir Award, again with NDCS.

This year I've been helping Jo and Krishna from NDCS with interviews for our new Youth Advisory Board!! We finished today in Birmingham with 7 people and as off tomorrow we will have new board - which is exciting and sad at the same time...
The interviews have been fantastic! It's great to meet so many deaf young people I don't know, and I'm rather impressed that Jo has managed to find so many deaf young people I haven't met! Their interviews have been insightful and inspiring... Their "objects" that they have brought along to talk about have been funny and given a really great impression of the lives of deaf young people. The final question: "what do you think the biggest issue facing deaf young people today is?" has produced a range of answers from the usual deaf awareness to the more unusual: cochlear implants and the inability of different services (audiology, ToD etc) to work together and share information... Two things I don't think we talked about on the YAB last year!!

I can't wait until the first residential in July where a few of us old board members will become young facilitators and try to teach our skills to the new members! Should be fun and awesome to meet the new members! I'm very excited to see who gets a place as I don't know yet!!

Yesterday was the NDCS Family Fun Day at Hatton Country World in Warwickshire - an amazing event which offered families of deaf children the chance to let their hair down, meet friends and gain information on various topics.

I spent the morning setting up and then watching over the giant games and teddy bear's picnic which was a great opportunity to be "hands on" and beaten! at loads of games including a massive version of snakes and ladders as well as giant connect-4 and jenga... Great stuff!
After that I spent some time "guarding the entrance" and pointing people in the right direction before climbing on to the NDCS Listening Bus to answer lots of questions on loads of topics like alarm clocks, door bells and independence through technology.

I was amazed by how many parents hadn't heard of the amazing NDCS Technology Test Drive a unique project which allows you to borrow equipment such as clocks, radio aids, music links etc... to "try before you buy". I've used the test drive a couple of times and it is great!!