Ishara 2008 to 2012

 

Ishara was funded by the Scottish Government Equality Unit for 4 years from 2008 until 2012. This will allow the project to contribute to the Race, Religion and Refugee work in Scotland. There will be 3 key areas of work:

1. Capacity Building for organisations who support ME and Deaf communities
2. Community Engagement with Deaf ME People
3. Resource Development

• Capacity Building - Ishara will help build the capacity of organisations that carry out work in terms of Race Equality/ME Communities Support Work; Faith and Belief work and Refugee work. We aim to build this capacity through networking, partnership working and deaf awareness training. We also aim to build the capacity of organisations working for the Deaf community in Scotland through information sessions on Race Relations, Faith and Belief and Refugee Communities and their issues.

• Community Engagement - The Community Engagement will be supported through the Asian Deaf Club. The Asian Deaf Club meets every Saturday between 1.30pm to 4.30pm at Deaf Connections by arranging trips, social activities and information sessions. We also celebrate cultural events from different ME cultures. We will aim to work with service providers, for example, health, housing, local council and police to engage with Deaf ME People on how they can improve their services.

• Resource Development - We will also work with key partners to produce resources from key learning from the capacity building programme. For example, a DVD with BSL and subtitles promoting good Race Relations in the Deaf Community. We will also develop resources to deal with specialist issues in the Deaf ME community, for example, Forced Marriage and Honour Based Violence in the Deaf ME Community.

 This Iniatuve was supported by: