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Working with Two Charities

The Charities

SEA is currently working alongside two charities, Genie Networks based in Manchester and Deaf Active based in Liverpool. First of all, our partnership will include fundraising for these two charities. We want all of our staff to get involved to try and raise as much money as possible for Genie and Deaf Active. We also want to develop partnerships  with these organisations, who’s work we value as an asset to the deaf children, young people and families.

Genie Networks

Genie Networks is a registered charity supporting Children and Families with deafness across Greater Manchester.  They provide services to families across Greater Manchester.

Genie provide 1:1 Family Support such as Information and Advice, Advocacy Parenting Skills and Training. Genie hosts many Family events. This includes trips to Lego land and a Manchester United football stadium tour. Furthermore, events such as breakfasts clubs and signing tots.

Genies one of the only three deaf family centres in the UK! They have great facilities at the family centre due to having a large reception area, meeting rooms and a playroom.

Events coming up at Genie:

1. Breakfast Club – Saturday 20th October (9.00am-10.30am)
2. Dino Falls Adventure Golf – Saturday 20th October (4.00pm-6.00pm)
3. Pumpkin Picking – Saturday 20th October (12.00pm-1.30pm)

Deaf Active

Based in the Joseph Lappin Centre DEAF ACTIVE offers high quality activities servicing the D/deaf and hearing community – bringing them together and breaking down social barriers.

Deaf Active operates on a theory called “reverse integration”. This is where a non-marginalised group (hearing people) merges with a marginalised group (D/deaf people).’ Their projects and activities are impressively varied, such as:

1. ACTIVE FITNESS – exercise classes and personal training sessions
2. DISCOVERY CAMP – an afterschool club, including team building activities to integrate D/deaf and hearing children.
3. BSL COURSES – accredited for levels 1 & 2
4. STEPPING STONES – help people overcome barriers in finding employment

Check out Deaf Active’s app, called HANDS. It’s high quality and costs just £1.49. Furthermore, it offers easy to follow videos for a variety of word groups and signed songs. It’s very popular and has seen over 40,000 downloads!

Why SEA chose these charities?

These two charities make such a positive difference within the deaf community. Furthermore, many members of the SEA staff are D/deaf. We wanted to work alongside charities that support deaf people and their families as this is also our focus. Consequently, some of our staff and clients have used these charities. So, the SEA team wanted to give back to them.

Finally, we chose these charities because both the Directors of SEA, Hayley and Suzanne have a great involvement in Deaf Active and Genie. Suzanne is on the Board of Trustees for Genie Networks and Hayley is on the board for Deaf Active.

SEA 5K – Take a look at our next fundraiser event by clicking Here.

Training for SEA Staff

Take a look at how SEA provide training for our Staff

Support and Encouragement

Here at SEA we want all our staff to develop and be the best we can be. Therefore, we encourage all our staff to complete training courses. Some of the courses we provide are essential to working at SEA. However, we also want our staff to keep developing in their knowledge of different subjects.

Care Certificate

SEA make sure all of our staff have Care Certificates. A Care Certificate is an agreed set of standards that sets out the knowledge, skills and behaviours expected of specific job roles in the health and social care sectors. It’s made up of the 15 minimum standards that should be covered if you are ‘new to care’ and should form part of a robust induction programme.

E-Cert Training

First of all, we use the company E-Cert to help train our staff. We provide all our permanent staff with free training for 20 courses using E-Cert training. This ranges from mandatory courses such as Basic First Aid to courses that are specific for clients that you work with, such as Dementia Care. These courses are easily accessible to both our D/deaf and hearing staff due to the fact they are online exams and are multiple choice papers.

Diplomas / Apprenticeships

We also encourage SEA staff to gain more qualifications through working towards Diplomas and Apprenticeships. Some examples of qualifications our staff have achieved through SEA include:

• Health and Social Care
• Care Management
• Leadership for Health and Social Care and Children and Young Persons Services

Insight into the Deaf Perspective

SEA have created an inclusive workplace for all of their staff. One way in which this has been achieved is by encouraging all of our hearing staff to attend Deaf Awareness courses. SEA management recently organised an Insight into the Deaf Perspective course. Click here to have a look at a blog post about Deaf Perspective training course.

Deafblind

SEA management are currently in the process of raising awareness for Deafblind. We have a Deafblind awareness course organised for the near future, then some members of staff are going to complete Communicator Guide and Intervenor training.

Examples of other recent training SEA have provided for their staff:

1. Epilepsy awareness
2. Fire Safety
3. Brain Injury
4. Drug and Alcohol awareness
5. MAPA – for working with clients who have challenging behaviour
6. Self Harm awareness

An Insight into the Deaf Perspective

Recently SEA Management organised a training course for some of the hearing staff at SEA. Understanding the Deaf Perspective was an in depth ‘Deaf Awareness’ course.

The training course was led by one of the Directors of SEA Suzanne Robinson and Claire Johnson CEO of Genie Networks.

Although, many of the SEA staff have been working with individuals who are deaf for many years, this course was beneficial to everyone. SEA Management really wanted all staff to understand from a deaf perspective what life can be like for deaf people.

Exclusion

Firstly, we took part in activities about how it can feel to be deaf. In order, to get the group to understand (even a fraction) some of the challenges deaf people have to go through.

Below are some of the comments that were made about how people felt during the exercises.

“Self conscious”

                      “Like everyone was talking about me”

“Isolated”

                    “Uncomfortable”

Furthermore, we completed other tasks such as understanding the impact of body language and considering issues within the deaf community such as whether or not deaf people should have cochlear implants.

Finally, the following list is what the group achieved from attending ‘Insight into the Deaf Perspective’:

1. Developing a broad understanding of deafness
2. We understood the emotional impact due to isolation associated with deafness
3. Learning about the implications of deaf experiences from childhood to adulthood

As a result of this course, the SEA staff can implement more positive working practices with both deaf colleagues and deaf clients at SEA.

If you would like to learn more about SEA, click the following link About Us.

Looking for Support Workers in the South East

SEA Services are recruiting Support Workers in the South East to work with deaf clients.

SOUTH EAST – SURREY + KENT

BANK STAFF ARE REQUIRED  |  HOURS OF WORK – FLEXIBLE

1. Are you passionate about providing great quality care to clients who are deaf and have additional needs?
2. Do you think that you can make a difference to people’s lives by offering a person centred care that enables clients to live independently?
3. Do you have a strong empathy with the needs of D/deaf Adults and the ability to build rapport with service users?
4. Do you live in the South East?

The role involves providing care to clients depending on their individual needs. Examples of tasks are;

• Provide support in social and leisure activities,
• Help with mobility
• Support in preparing meals, shopping
• Assist clients to access to information,
• Support and develop communication
• Support with simple house work.
• Encourage independence and to learn new skills
• Budget planning and managing money
• Teaching transport skills

Benefits of working for SEA?

1. Excellent rates of pay
2. Flexible working hours and
3. Full access to support and training
4. Fully accessible to deaf people

Applicants will need –

• Level 2 BSL
• Driving License (desirable)
• Undergo an enhanced DBS
• Two references

Individuals should have a positive attitude to working with D/deaf Adults and children.

If you live in the South East and want to APPLY Download this Application Form and then send over the completed form to admin@searecruitment.co.uk

If you would like anymore information – Email admin@searecruitment.co.uk or Phone 0161 928 8810.

To find out more about SEA Recruitment, click the link to take a look at the About Us page.

S.E.A. is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to providing services which improve access for the client group. We are a unique organisation which is able to provide staff with sign language skills to individuals, businesses and organisations, enabling the provision of high quality, equitable and accessible services.

5 Services SEA provide for Deaf People

Here at SEA we specialise in providing high quality care services for our clients. In addition, we also supply highly trained staff to a range of external professional service providers. Furthermore, to ensure their services are accessible for deaf  people who use British Sign Language as their first language. SEA provide a wide range of services, see below for further information…

Domiciliary Care

We recognise that many deaf people who need help with personal care have traditionally been provided with staff who have no understanding of deafness or ability to understand BSL. Therefore, at SEA we only employ staff fluent in sign language to ensure communication is never a barrier when providing domiciliary care to our clients. We offer friendly, reliable, and affordable support to people in their own homes, with a variety of carers available we complete compatibility assessments to ensure the most suitable match of carer.

 Children Services

SEA also provide support workers for children and young people diagnosed as deaf or deaf blind, to ensure you  achieve the best outcome for your child. Our children support services are available both within the home, in social groups, in the community and in a school setting. We provide personal care in the family environment, respite in the family home, communication development, positive role models & a sense of belonging.

Outreach Services

Our outreach service assists individuals to lead independent lives in their own home. We employ a number of Personal Assistants who can support deaf clients to become more confident in managing their own lives and doing things for themselves. The help we are able to offer will depend on the needs identified in the Support Plan but may include support with shopping, budgeting, healthy living and getting into a good routine at home. We can support people to access more services in the community and we often help people who are isolated to develop their social skills, mix with other people and make new friends. All of our staff are fluent sign language users and many are deaf themselves. This means that they can communicate with the client at their pace and level without the need for interpreters.

Independent Living Accommodation

Beach House is our independent living home, based in Knowsley (Mersyside) the house boasts six rooms with one reserved for short-term respite care. People have their own tenancy and support is provided by staff if this is required. This provides deaf people with the opportunity to live independently whilst being able to socialise with like-minded individuals in a friendly, safe and caring environment.

Beach House

Social Work Services

We have a number of practitioners and social workers who have vast experience of undertaking assessments with deaf people and their families, from children to adults. Through our social work services we are able to carry out comprehensive independent social work assessments and make clear recommendations and, where appropriate give costings for packages of care. Assessments are person centred and take into account the clients views whilst offering a balanced analysis. We have vast experience of undertaking parenting assessments and giving expert evidence in court. All our assessors are fluent in sign language eliminating the need to book interpreters.

For further information regarding the services available at SEA Recruitment, please don’t hesitate to contact us.