Welcome news for the Jewish Deaf Association

Brenda Sterne, a service user at the Jewish Deaf Association

A charity based in Whetstone in North London, which helps prevent deaf people from becoming isolated and alone recently received a grant of £180,000 to help fund a day care centre for the elderly.
The Jewish Deaf Association (JDA), on Woodside Park Road, helps hundreds of people every year – from parents who give birth to deaf children to elderly people who were born deaf who were never taught to read and write.
Now the charity will use the grant, from the City of London Corporations City Bridge Trust, to support the running of its Ageing Well Together day centre as well as services for elderly deaf and deaf-blind British Sign-Language users.
Services at the JDA, which helps people of all ages and faiths, include specialist hearing aid support and maintenance, a technology information centre, lip-reading classes, BSL training, and social activities including discussion groups and a book club and deaf awareness training is delivered in schools and day centres.
Alison Gowman, Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s City Bridge Trust Committee, said: “JDA is offering a much-needed service to older BSL users, who often struggle to engage with mainstream welfare services. The charity provides a vital resource that reduces isolation and exclusion, improves physical and mental health and is often a lifeline for older deaf and deaf-blind people.”
Brenda Sterne, a service user at the Jewish Deaf Association (pictured above), added: “Thanks to this grant, JDA can continue to make sure that our older Deaf and Deafblind clients remain happy, healthy and active – safe and secure in the knowledge that they will be loved and cared for right until the end of their lives.”

JDA was established in 1948 and is run from a purpose-built, deaf-friendly Community Centre in North Finchley.

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