The National Lottery supports Deaf Hub ( Wales ) & Pride Cymru Improving Accessibility For All
Building on the success of Pride Cymru 2019 ,two welsh charities are coming together again this August to bring an additional element to Wales’ largest celebration of Equality & Diversity. Whilst COVID 19 has impacted many outdoor events this year , Deaf Hub ( Wales ) previous known as Cardiff Deaf Centre and Pride Cymru are again working in partnership to ensure that the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community - are not excluded from this years online event . Pride Cymru's Online Big Week is being hosted from Monday 24th August to 30th August .
Pride Cymru has been focused on improving accessibility to its annual event for many years and has been working with partner charities including Deaf Hub (Wales) to achieve this, all this hard work paid off as Pride achieved GOLD Accreditation from Attitude Is Everything in 2019. Pride Cymru has had British Sign Language Interpreters as part of the stage performances for many years.
Taking the whole event online as a result of COVID 19 has had its challenges but Pride Cymru is fully committed to improving accessibility for all and building on the partnership with the Deaf Community has been of continued importance this year. Wales Deaf LGBTQIA+ Pride in 2019 brought the first Deaf performer to Pride Cymru's main stage, International Deaf Sign Song Artist Fletch, and for 2020 Fletch returns with other Deaf Artists to provide nearly an hour of performance content on Saturday 29th at 5pm . All of the events are being streamed
for FREE on the Pride Cymru Facebook page! #YourPride #LGBT Check out all of the events here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/pride-cymru-17229875735
As a charity Deaf Hub (Wales) at Cardiff Deaf Centre is undergoing a large development programme that sees the charity looking to raise £750,000 to redevelop the home of the charity on Newport Road, Cardiff. Sitting at the heart of Deaf Hub (Wales) plans are improving awareness of Deaf Arts, Deaf Culture and the importance of information in British Sign Language( BSL) across all aspects of daily living.
Dafydd Eveliegh - Chair of the Trustees commented “ The Deaf Arts Festival held at the WMC in March 2019 allowed many young people to experience elements of Deaf Arts & Culture for the first time , building on the success of the festival , we have secured funding from the National Lottery Community Fund Lottery to bring Deaf Performers to Pride Cymru again this year . We are pleased to showcase some great Welsh Deaf Talent and proud to note that Deaf Performers from across the UK are supporting too.
“We would love to see DEAF PRIDE (Wales) become an annual event along side our annual Deaf Arts Festival”
Helen Rankin – Accessibility Manager for Pride Cymru stated ‘We are so proud of the accessibility improvements we have made to our annual event , as an Equalities charity we will continue to work hard to keep removing perceived or real barriers to ensure the event is accessible for all. Whilst we have achieved the Gold states from Attitude Is Everything, we have no intention of sitting on our laurels and working with Deaf Hub (Wales) and Wales Deaf LGBTQIA is a testimony to that. Bringing a programme of Deaf Performers strengthening awareness of Deaf Arts and Deaf Culture and the core of the Big Online Week will also have BSL/English interpretation and captioning.
Information for Editors
Pride Cymru:
The first ever Cardiff Mardi Gras event took place on September 4th 1999, with over 5,000 people who had gathered by the end of Saturday night to Bute Park for the city festival. The event coincided with a conference on hate crime, which urged the LGBT community to report crime to the police. Since then, combating hate crime has become a staple purpose for Pride Cymru’s existence.
Over the years, the event has gained a huge amount of support and recognition from the community, partners, attendees near and from afar, and by all of those those who take part. The number of visitors to the event annually has grown significantly peaking at around 20,000 per day. While it’s become one of the biggest pride events in the UK over the years, it’s taken creative initiatives to tackle wider issues in the LGBT+ community and improve accessibility to the event for all.
Website: https://www.pridecymru.com/
Email: helen@pridecymru.com
Contact: Helen Rankin
Tel:07905584233
Deaf Hub (Wales)/Cardiff Deaf Centre
Deaf Hub (Wales) is the cultural and social home of Cardiff’s D/deaf people and those within the surrounding areas. Deaf people from all walks of life, members and non-members make use of the centre for social events, training, information, peer support groups, consultations, spiritual guidance and much more.
Many generations of families have used the centre to meet with other members of the community, seek information, seek advice, worship, celebrate, learn and even meet their life partners. For over 40 years D/deaf families have utilised 163 Newport Road as a safe location where ‘All are Welcome’ regardless of their background.
Recently the centre has faced a crisis as a result of the economic turmoil of 2008, the building to fall into disrepair over the years and, in 2013 knowing the loss of this ‘safe space’ would have a devastating impact on the D/deaf community, several members of the community came forward and they sprang into action to rescue the centre ensuring the continuation of a safe place for the D/deaf community. The trustees have been working on a full programme of development of the building and improvement of services to the Deaf
The current plans for improvements will require £750,000. The charity is constantly raising funds to make the improvements to the building and therefore improve the services needed by the Deaf Community in South Wales
Website: https://www.deafhub.wales
Email: fundraiser@deafhub.wales
Contact: fundraiser@deafhub.wales
Tel:07706945529