An interactive day for families and whānau with Deaf children
A collaborative event bringing together whole families of Deaf children with adult members of the Deaf community, youth mentors and representatives of Auckland Deaf Society, Auckland parents of Deaf children, DANZ First signs and other organisations.
Organisation: Auckland Deaf Society
Report by Manager Julie-Anne Taylor
A fun day of activities for Deaf children supervised by Deaf youth mentors, running simultaneously with presentations for their parents and caregivers by adult Deaf NZSL users, along with opportunities to mix and mingle, and make or strengthen connections within the Deaf and signing community.
"It is so reassuring to know that our journey is not isolated and there are lots of people out there with valuable experience and empathy who are willing to lend support whenever needed. It's also great to see how proud Deaf people are of their identity and to learn about their successful adult lives"
- Anna Parks - Participant
This was a very successful event. the response was beyond our expectations with a large number of people present, including families of deaf children, Deaf presenters, Deaf Youth mentors and volunteers from DANZ First Signs, Ko Taku Reo, and APODC.
The children were well engaged in fun activities with supervision from Deaf mentors, which freed their parents and caregivers to focus on presentations and to mix and mingle within the Deaf community.
We feel this project achieved our key objectives of reducing the isolation of families of Deaf children, facilitating connections between parents and Deaf community members, and increasing family confidence in coming into a Deaf space.
We also wished to showcase the value of NZSL, and we feel that this was achieved by ensuring the use of NZSL throughout the day, not only at the presentations for parents, but also during the activities for children, and during breaks and socialising, due to the presence of Deaf mentors and Deaf community members, who were modelling the natural use of NZSL.
It was also an important opportunity for parents to listen to Deaf presenters about their journeys growing up as a Deaf person, and to contribute to making fully informed decisions about their children's futures. The value of the day is illustrated in some of the quotes from families that were present:
"There are few social spaces outside of AP2DC events where we can build on our skills, but this family day held in a Deaf space and supported by so many members of the community really helped us feel at ease using our sign and it was great for my daughter's siblings to be exposed to more sign"
- Tracey Winstone - Participant