The Jewish Deaf Association
November 11, 2008 16:50The Jewish Deaf Association (JDA) will be reaching out to young and old during Mitzvah Day on Sunday.
Led by their community centre assistant Danielle Jacobs, deaf JDA employee Jeremy Freeman, a team of JDA staff and volunteers will be running workshops at Hampstead Town Hall.
From 2pm until 3.30pm the "Say That Again" workshop will teach people how to cope with members of their family who may be losing their hearing.
Then there will be a quick turnaround and from 4pm until 5.30pm JDA will switch to ‘Kids Aloud' mode to raise awareness of deafness among young people. The interactive workshop will give children aged 8-11 years first-hand experience of what it feels like not to be able to hear properly and teach them how to communicate in the right way - including learning how to fingerspell.
"Deafness is growing so it's important to reach as wide a spectrum of the Jewish community as possible," says Danielle Jacobs "and by holding two distinctly separate and fun workshops we hope to achieve that. The sessions will be run by deaf people which will add to everyone's experience."