Hearing Ambassadors launch their website

There are simply too many clubs and members who have supported us with their skills and knowledge over the last couple of years for us to mention them by name, so we would like to dedicate our new website to Rotary District 1220 with grateful thanks for all the encouragement and practical help that you have given us.

It would not have been possible for us to get so far without the generous donations from six clubs and matched funding from a District Foundation Grant.

We are so proud to be able to launch our website at this moment which coincides with Lipreading Awareness Week (14-19 September 2020).

https://www.hearingambassadors.org

Please take a look and pass on the link to any friends and colleagues who you think might be interested. We hope that the launch of our website marks the beginning of the wider Hearing Ambassadors movement, inspired by Rotary District 1220.

If you would like to find out more about being a Hearing Ambassador, please email us on info@hearingambassadors.org

South Yorkshire and East Midlands ‘Hear’ from Rotary Hearing Ambassadors

Rotary Hearing Ambassadors are on a mission to help meeting and event organisers communicate better with those who have hearing loss.

Hearing Ambassadors recently held their first session to promote good practises across the East Midlands and South Yorkshire, as the hard of hearing are often disadvantaged when in formal groups, meetings and events.

Fifteen volunteers, mainly Rotarians, from across the East Midlands and South Yorkshire from Doncaster in the North to Burton in the south attended. The venue just off M1 Junction 28 South In Derbyshire was fairly central. and the group included one non Rotarian, an audiologist from Sheffield.

Burton Rotarian and Hearing Ambassador trainer, Rosie Dixon, lead the session which including exercises such as, ‘Chinese whispers’ with interesting, telling and very useful results noted by the volunteers. Sitting back to back to have a conversation demonstrated hearing loss issues. The ‘Hearing Ambassador’ volunteers Rotarians together with the audiologist from Sheffield had their awareness raised and shown techniques of good practise to demonstrate to others, including best use of sound systems and microphones.

Hearing Ambassador Trustee Gillian Campbell of the Rotary Club of Hope Valley, Derbyshire, whose husband Andrew as significant hearing loss, said, “It’s really is about being aware of the isolating effects of hearing loss; being open to the needs of hearing impaired; and being patient and thoughtful when speaking to people who may include those with heating loss.”

At the end of the session members were each given a Rotary Hearing Ambassadors badge as they go out into the regions to promote hearing awareness both at Rotary Clubs and other organisations in their area using a presentation pack prepared by Rotary Hearing Ambassadors.

Anyone interested in either becoming a ‘Hearing Ambassador’ or having a talk should contact Gillian Campbell by email: rotaryhearingambassadors@gmail.com OR through Facebook – hearing ambassadors

Hearing Ambassadors Newsletter

Attached is September’s issue of our Newsletter.

As well as our own news, we are delighted to include an article from Rotary Club of Thornbury which is in District 1100.   They have written to us to explain how they are getting on with the joint Rotary/Hearing-Link “Let’s Hear” project.   They have done such a lot in their community, and I am sure members will be interested in what they have achieved for the hard of hearing.

We have invited Hearing Link to talk about the “Let’s Hear” project at our next Hearing Ambassadors workshop which will be held on 19 November in North East Derbyshire.   At the half day workshop, we will also have a speaker from Deaf-inately Women, a Derbyshire charity for Deafened Women, and Hearing Ambassador Rosie will be running a pilot of her training course which is aimed at helping clubs to understand what they can do to ensure that all members are fully included in meetings, regardless of how well they hear.

We see this as a great opportunity for anyone who is interested in hearing loss to get to know more and share ideas about how to make things better.
We will be making a small charge of £20 to cover the cost of room hire and light buffet lunch and refreshments.   

We will be sending out further notices about the workshop nearer the time, but places will be limited to 20, so we are asking that anyone who is interested in attending to email us on RotaryHearingAmbassadors@gmail.com to register their interest.

Hearing Ambassadors newsletter July 2019

The latest newsletter from our Hearing Ambassadors is linked below

Download (PDF, 461KB)