Vicdeaf - Deaf Community Survey Summary

Community Survey from the Vicdeaf website – May / June 2008

Summary of Results
 
Vicdeaf conducted a Community Survey earlier in 2008 to research the Deaf and hard of hearing community’s interests and expectations of Vicdeaf.
 
Whilst more investigation and study of the results is being undertaken – we have produced this summary of the responses to give you an idea of the responses we received and some of the things that were raised.

General Overview:

  • Over 60% of people who responded were female
  • 76% were aged between 26 and 54
  • 59% of people want Vicdeaf to provide more workshops and social events

The top five workshop topics selected from the list provided were:

  • Women’s health
  • Diet/food
  • Cancer
  • Men’s health
  • Mental health

Other info:

  • 87% of respondents want a formal Deaf club in Melbourne run by Deaf people
  • 34 people would be interested in being involved with the running of the Deaf club

 

 

Vicdeaf's response to some points that were made:

People would like to see more information presented in Auslan on the website
Vicdeaf is currently working on adding more information in Auslan to the website – you can check the different sections of the website to look at some videos. Hopefully in the next few months we will be putting Auslan clips of our bi-monthly newsletter “Communicate” onto the website for everyone to see as well as Auslan versions of our fact sheets. Here is a link to some of the work we have done already: http://www.vicdeaf.com.au/visual-resources

Workshops run by Deaf people for Deaf people on lots of different topics
Vicdeaf will be revamping the “Guest Speaker Program” starting with a presentation being given by Robert Adam in September on “Deaf Identity”. The program will then continue into 2009 with a variety of topics and workshops. Keep your eyes peeled for our monthly e-news email which details all the Deaf events happening in and around Victoria.

Deaf Leaders Mentoring Program
Vicdeaf will be establishing a leadership and mentoring program for Deaf professionals wanting to become managers or team leaders. There is still some work involved in getting a program running – but we hope to have this up and running in the near future. We expect to have the Program as the focus for the Community Funds for 2009 and expect to provide information on the Program in November 2008.

Establish a Deaf Cultural Day
Vicdeaf is already involved in “National Week of Deaf People” which used to be called Deaf Pride Week. This is an annual event run by VCOD and celebrates Deaf culture and empowers Deaf people. Vicdeaf also runs a Christmas Rally in December every year to celebrate the Deaf community in Victoria and provide an opportunity for everyone to get together and wish each other well for the holidays. We are also planning a number of events for 2009 as part of the celebration for Vicdeaf’s 125th anniversary.

Mental Health Awareness for Deaf people
Vicdeaf is hoping to produce some information in Auslan that will be available on the Vicdeaf website and in DVD format that will explain all the different parts of Mental Health and how to stay well and happy. Hopefully this will happen in the next year. Vicdeaf has recently been working with Beyond Blue to put together information about Deafness and Depression – these information sheets will be released soon. We are also supporting an international conference being held in Brisbane in 2009.

What happened to JSSC?
JSSC was a Deaf club that was just like any Deaf club that was not supported financially by Vicdeaf. JSSC used to rent the club rooms from Vicdeaf for the social nights. Just before Vicdeaf sold the property at Jolimont, fewer and fewer people were coming to the social nights and JSSC started to lose a lot of money which could not pay for the rent at Jolimont. Because there was no money, JSSC had to shut down and there has been no Melbourne Deaf Club since then.

Set up a Melbourne Deaf Club
This issue was raised with the President and CEO at a meeting of members in June this year. Vicdeaf is happy to support and encourage Deaf and hard of hearing people in Melbourne Metro (and from anywhere in Victoria) to establish and run a Melbourne Deaf Club. Unfortunately we cannot be responsible for all of the ongoing work and we would like to work with the community to support setting up an independent group to organize the Club.

Whoever establishes the club is more than welcome to apply for funding from Vicdeaf and to seek Vicdeaf’s support in the initial administration but Vicdeaf cannot continue to support an independent club without giving the same support to the other clubs in Victoria. For more information please email David Peters: dpeters@vicdeaf.com.au