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OUR REPORT Peterborough and District Deaf

Childrens Societys work in 2014-15

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Contents Chairmans Report ........................................................................2

Finance ..........................................................................................3

Fundraising....................................................................................4

Football .........................................................................................6

Boxfit .............................................................................................7

Swimming .....................................................................................8

Toddlers ........................................................................................9

Play scheme ............................................................................... 10

Trips and events ......................................................................... 11

Youth .......................................................................................... 13

Website and Online engagement .............................................. 13

Committee and Thanks .............................................................. 14

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Chairmans Report We have a deaf childrens society to be proud of in

Peterborough. In this report youll see just how much has been

going on and what a difference PDDCS makes in our community

for deaf children and their families.

Almost every week there is

something going on and it takes a lot

of hard work to make it happen. I

want to pay tribute to all the

volunteers who have made it

happen for PDDCS this year. We

really couldnt do it without the

backing of the people on our

committee and volunteers.

We only have our society because parents of deaf children and

volunteers know that what we do is important and dont rest

until they put their plans in place. Its that commitment and

passion that brings us to life.

In the end, our society is simply parents, families and volunteers

working together to create something greater than the sum of

its parts.

Thank you to everyone involved in the activities in this report. A

report which I am incredibly proud to be associated with.

Andy Palmer, Chairman

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Finance This year has been a good year with funding from Vivacity, Core

Building, Peterborough yacht Club, National Lottery, Debbie

Powells friends and family, Parents, Mrs Barber and Mrs Monaf.

At the end of April 2014 our Cafcash cash account had a balance

of 10,541.15 and our Savings Cafcash Gold account had a

balance of 10,97916.

10,000 is ring-fenced funding from the National Lottery to pay

for training and equipment for swimming and football and this

must be spent by April 2016.

With that in mind, it is important that we find ways to fundraise

in future to ensure that we can continue to put on activities.

I will be standing down from this position and Adrian Fisher will

be taking on the role if selected.

In the future, it would be advisable for the charity to move

towards online banking to make payments easier and more

efficient.

I would like to thank everyone that has given so generously to

our charity enabling us to provide lots of Deaf friendly activities

and events for our children and parents.

Amy Casselden, Treasurer.

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Fundraising We lost a dear friend of our society when Debbie Powell passed

away in October. We miss her terribly and fondly remember her

positive nature, friendly teaching style and passion for the

absolute best for deaf children and adults.

We are thankful to the Powell family for choosing PDDCS as a

beneficiary from the giving in her memory.

Peterborough Yacht Club chose PDDCS to benefit from their

family fun day in August and raised 1800 for our cause

Core Building Services donated 1000 to our deaf football

project to pay for balls and equipment. We also received 500

from Mrs Barber towards training kits for the young players. In

April we received 10,000 in lottery funding to pay for training,

transport and equipment for both the football and swimming

projects as well as a 3000 grant from the FA.

We were also named as RAF Witterings Charity of the Year and

Rachel Mawdsley who works there ran a half-marathon for us.

On the subject of swimming, warm thanks and congratulations

to Lisa Ryan and Julie Longland who completed a 26 mile swim

along the river Nene to raise money to train swimming

instructors to learn sign language and support our successful

deaf swimming project.

Their effort and commitment was an extraordinary thing to

witness.

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Top: Kids love swimming classes for deaf children Bottom: Sydney and Javaria dissuss deaf football on

poshdeaf.com

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Football Our young football teams had an extraordinary year. Our

partnership with Peterborough United is proving to be a success

with support for transport, tickets, coaching and kits.

Our under-13 team won the NDCS Southern Region tournament

for the second successive year and went on to beat both

Newcastle

United and

Charlton

Athletic at

Englands St

Georges Park to

become the first

ever under-13

national deaf

champions. Our

under 16 team

reached the semi-finals of the southern tournament too which

was a brilliant achievement.

We intend to reintroduce training for ages 5-10 soon but have

launched a deaf female football team and an adults team too

which is open to over 16s.

The football project supported over 50 footballers receive

accessible coaching in the year. A new website was set-up which

has helped to gain more interest in the project.

www.poshdeaf.com

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Boxfit Working with Peterborough Amateur Boxing Club we have

delivered accessible Boxing and Boxfit classes for deaf children

and adults throughout the year which have proved popular.

Once young man could also begin to fight competitively.

James and Sam are both qualified boxing coaches with years of

experience.

Both have wide ranging experiences in various martial arts.

Thank you to Sam, James and to Teresa Quail for your hard work

in bringing deaf friendly boxing to the city for another year.

We again worked with Thorpe Ventures to provide deaf-friendly

cycling proficiency. Again, thank you to Teresa Quail and Steve

from Thorpe Ventures.

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Swimming Deaf friendly

swimming is a

weekly event

and popular

among children

of many ages.

Swimming

lessons are

something deaf

children are

often excluded

from given the

additional time

and

communication

barriers that

naturally occur.

Amy Casselden and Lisa Ryan have been central to making sure

that deaf children in our area have the chance not to miss out on

this important life skill.

The children are all improving and picking up certificates as their

confidence increases.

Thank you to Amy and Lisa and Vivacity for their incredible work

in making swimming accessible in Peterborough for deaf

children.

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Toddlers

Loved by parents and toddlers alike, our Toddler group has been

going for over a decade now and is as popular as ever. At the

toddler group, children have access to toys and we work with

local audiology to make it easier for parents to get ear moulds at

Toddlers, rather than trapse to the hospital again.

Were looking forward to welcoming Kelda Chambers to the

committee this year and thank her wholeheartedly for her

brilliant contribution to our work.

Also many thanks to the Jigsaw Centre for all their support in

hosting our group.

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Play scheme

Children of primary school age are all welcome to our super Play

Scheme in the summer holidays. In 2014 we again used the

Fulbridge School Sure Start Centre and its excellent facilities.

There was also a coach-trip at the end of the week. Thank you to

them and to Louisa Stokes and all her volunteers for all their

help in running the scheme.

During the Play Scheme, the kids got involved in sports including

football coaching, painting and colouring with a pumping disco

at the end.

This year, the scheme will move to Jack Hunt School who have

been long running supporters of PDDCS.

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Trips and events We had a great trip to Drayton Manor in the summer holiday

where a coach load of families went along to enjoy the fun.

Thanks to Liz Monaf for organising.

We took a minibus load of young footballers to Wembley

Stadium for a sign language interpreted tour and to play

matches against children from Brentford and Kent Deaf

Childrens Society. Thank you to Peterborough United,

Powerleague and Wembley Stadium for making the day a

success.

In the winter, we

held a smashing

Winter Party with

magical Disney

Princesses and

Superheroes in

attendance. Thank

you to Amy Casselden and Fran Rickard for making the day a

success.

In January, we organised for 80 people to attend the Signed

Pantomime at the Key Theatre.

In June, many families attended a special one-off day at RAF

wittering where children were given an access all areas tour of

the station, including the firing range and fire station. Thanks to

RAF Wittering and Ed Palmer for organising the visit.

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Olympic boxer Hannah Beharry attended one of the deaf

friendly boxfit sessions run with Peterborough and District ABC

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Youth Thanks to Charlene Spires for arranging bowling and a meal at

Nandos in the winter. The event was a big success with a dozen

young people enjoying the event. We are looking for help to

organise more Youth focused events in future. Please get in touch

if you can help.

Website and Online engagement Our website has had over 350,000 views since it was launched

three years ago and thats an amazing achievement. We have

had over 800 articles posted online, largely thanks to Teresa

Quail who has worked tirelessly to keep the community updated

with relevant news and event information.

In May, we moved our website to a new platform with a brand

new look and that automatically connects to our social

networks. Were also looking for volunteers to help us keep our

social media updated and respond to enquiries.

We switched to online payments and booking for our events

which help save our volunteers and families time.

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Committee This year attendances at committee meetings were lower than

expected with two meetings cancelled due to low numbers.

We began meeting at Asdas community room, then moved to

Northern Star Football Club and now back to Jack Hunt School.

We would like to give big

thanks to our interpreters,

Paula Fye, Anna Baker and

Kirsty Dorkenoo for their

continued voluntary

interpreting. We would also

like to thank Gillian Zirpolo for

minute taking and Northern

Star football club for the use of their hall.

If youre interested in joining the committee this year, the

following committee roles are needed:

Fundraising officer

Social Media officer

Youth event organiser

Family day events helper

We are currently not looking for anyone outside of those roles

to join the committee.

Thank you to all the committee members who have served

through the year. Special thanks to PDDCS Secretary Ayesha

Qureshi for organising our meetings.

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Thank you We would like to thank for their support in the year: Beth Yeoman Qadeer Hussain Chyanne Golding Katy Bocking Mohammed Umar Charlene Spires Amy Casselden Louisa Stokes Teresa Quail Fiona Forkin Ayesha Qureshi Kelda Chambers Marian Butcher Gillian Zirpolo Asda Northern Star Football Club Jack Hunt School Peterborough United Football Club Nick Sheppard Wembley Stadium Brentford Football Club Peterborough Yacht Club Shield Technologies Core Matthew Talbot KDCS NDCS Fran Rickard Vivacity Lisa Ryan

Liz Monaf Dean Monaf Sam and James from Peterborough ABC Thorpe Ventures Steve Long Hilary Long Chris Long Cameron Long Will Palmer Ed Palmer RAF Wittering Jade Ramm Northamptonshire FA Amber Wildgust Hunts FA Tash Applegate Ruth Godden Anna Baker Lisa Eden Kirsty Dorkenoo Paula Fye Groovy Discos Disco Dave NHS Audiology John Cheetham Mrs Butcher Paul Osker Tommy Robson, Ricky Heppolette and Jack Carmichael Arsenal Football Club Cambridgeshire Deaf Association To everyone who has helped PDDCS this year - Thank you!