19/01/2026
Video 5 mins long.
Hello everyone , hope you’re all well. I’m am worn out after the meeting yesterday. It was a long meeting but very useful and insightful. That’s why we left an open ended time for the meeting as we wanted to ensure everyone had time to express their views. Massive thanks to all that came yesterday; it is really appreciated.
When we booked the room, we thought that around 50 people would come but watching everyone file in yesterday, we realised there were actually around 70 that attended in total. It was standing room only. Just wow, amazing. But it did show that the deaf community is interested in what’s happening and it was important to hear everyone’s views and key points were noted.
That aside, I would like to say a huge thank you to you all for coming yesterday. You all gave up your Sunday to come even though I’m sure you had better things to do but you came. *Hand wave applause* to you all. It really helped to get an idea of what we want for the future so we can plan how to achieve this.
I know that some travelled long distances to come. Ruth is one of them. When I approached her to ask if she could attend the meeting. I said ‘I know it’s short notice for this Sunday but can you come?’ Ruth said yes, straight away no hesitation. She has the deaf community at heart with a doubt. So a big thank you to Ruth, RJ Care AND RJ Community.
Thank you to Corby deaf club who came and expressed their views. Greatly appreciated, thank you. Thank you to Deaf Walks who came to express their views and also Fahad and Northampton Deaf coffee group who came. Thank you to all of you.
Finally, I would like to say a huge thank you to Deaf first group. We are all volunteers with our own lives and work etc but they still gave up their time to help organise the room, food and lots of other things. Huge thank you from me for their help.
Extra special thanks goes to Sandra Wilson and Jane Carty for dealing with on the day registrations, email addresses and generally keeping things running smoothly.
Thanks to Chris O’Dell for his diligence in ensuring we were safe (fire exits etc) and also giving important background knowledge of Deafconnect’s history
I would like to say thank you to Amy Mace who volunteered to impromptu relay interpreter when we realised that the usual way of deaf meetings where you come to the front to say something wasn’t going to work as the room was packed. It would wasted a lot of time getting people to the front and return. Amy offered to relay what was being said. That helped a lot so thanks to Amy.
Thank you to Helen Wilson (nearly slipped using her old name!) for doing all the video recording all day. I’m sure she has very sore hands and wrists today! Thank you Helen.
Thank you you to Helen’s son, Michael who patiently minuted our meeting. Thank you Michael.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten some key people but I feel like my brain has melted today! So a big thank you to all of you. You gave up your Sunday to come and talk about the future of the deaf community in Northamptonshire. It is really really appreciated. It was so valuable to hear all the views and opinions. Thank you.
As soon as I have minutes and video I will forward by email and put on Facebook. I promise to do that. We need to keep the momentum going and carry on having open discussions about how we rebuild our deaf community.
Thank you all again.
