Auditory Verbal UK’s ‘Belfast project’ has reached the final in the National Lottery Awards! The project is competing against six others in the Best Health Project category. We need your vote to help us get the most votes to help transform the lives of deaf children across the country.

Auditory Verbal UK’s Belfast project was in collaboration with Northern Ireland based parent group The Hearing Hub. With funding from the National Lottery, the project gave Northern Ireland families access to Auditory Verbal therapy for the first time.

The Hearing Hub was founded by Abbie McKenna, following the birth of her daughter Katie, now five, who was born with a profound hearing loss.  You can read Katie’s story here. 

In response to being shortlisted, Abbie said:

I set up the Hearing Hub in collaboration with a few other local parents because I knew that it was important for Katie to know she wasn’t the only deaf child in the area and I wanted to share experiences with other parents of deaf children. The support I had from AVUK both in progressing Katie’s language but also in empowering me as a parent to advocate for my daughter was crucial in challenging perceptions about what she could achieve. The initial outreach project enabled us to raise awareness of AVT to support language and listening outcomes for deaf children in NI, winning the award will allow us to offer five bursaries to professionals to undertake AVT training and improve accessibility of this service to other families of deaf children.

The Hearing Hub and AVUK really need your votes! If we win the category, the project will be featured on a BBC One show and this will give us the opportunity to show what deaf children can achieve with the right support in the early years of their lives. It will really help us to create a sound future for many more deaf children across the UK.  

Please vote for the Hearing Hub and AVUK by following this link, call 0844 836 9694 or tweet using the hashtag #NLAHearingH

Vote now