The British Deaf Association regret to announce that after many years of providing services for young deaf people in Wales, we have been unable to find alternative funding to continue our deaf youth project and it will therefore close down on 1st November 2013.
Over the past twenty years, the BDA’s Welsh Deaf Youth project has helped many young deaf people to fulfil their potential and become leaders, community campaigners and professionals. They also got together to form the Welsh Deaf Youth Forum, “Deffo”. We are grateful to the Welsh Government for their funding of this unique project and we will continue to work with them and in partnership with other organisations to support young deaf people in Wales.
David Buxton, BDA’s Chief Executive, said: “We are very disappointed that we have not been able to secure new funding for this valuable project but we are still actively looking for deaf youth funding. Also, as part of the BDA’s aim to see more equality for deaf young people and their families in wider society, we will continue to campaign to ensure that they can be independent and be supported and empowered to achieve their potential beyond school and college. We also want to see more families of deaf children in Wales learning British Sign Language but this will require funding and support from the Welsh Government.”
