Case Study: D/deaf community - Culture Volunteers WM
Making the most of… supporting volunteering opportunities for the D/deaf community
In 2022, CBC received funding from Arts Council England after a successful funding bid made through Culture Central to set up the Culture Volunteers WM project. This two-year project aimed at making volunteering in the arts and cultural sector more widely accessible and attractive to a diverse range of communities. One area of focus for CBC during the project was to work with the D/deaf and hard of hearing community. CBC approached a number of organisations within the cultural sector and established a partnership between Stourbridge Glass Museum and Deaf Explorer. CBC’s work on the project has been a very valuable learning experience for the staff involved and the organisation as a whole.
Stourbridge Glass Museum opened in 2022 following a 12-year development project. It is housed in the Grade II listed former Stuart Crystal Glassworks site in Wordsley and is operated by the charity British Glass Foundation. The museum tells the story of the 400-year-old glass making industry in the area through its vast collection. CBC worked with the museum’s Volunteer Coordinator, Moemi, on the Culture Volunteers WM project.
Deaf Explorer is a Birmingham-based NPO that works with Deaf artists across multiple art forms such as Visual Arts, Theatre and Dance. The organisation supports D/deaf artists to achieve their ambitions and helps connect them with creative professionals and cultural organisations to enable them to thrive in their careers. Deaf Explorer also works with hearing-led arts organisations and supports them to understand how to make their organisations inclusive and safe spaces for D/deaf people. Deaf Explorer’s Artist Manager, Maral, was contacted by CBC to work with Stourbridge Glass Museum on this project.
We are creative producers and creative enablers, empowering Deaf artists to access arts opportunities, troubleshoot problems and mediate between the deaf and hearing. (www.deafexplorer.com)
Stourbridge Glass Museum’s motivation for being involved in the project was to make links with the D/deaf community, to increase the accessibility of their museum and to recruit D/deaf volunteers. Deaf Explorer were brought into the project by CBC once the funding had been secured and the aims of the project established. Maral’s role was to give the museum ideas for how to encourage D/deaf volunteers into the museum and to support the volunteers once they had been recruited. For Maral the project also provided a personal learning opportunity as she had not worked with volunteers before.
I was keen to get involved as it was new to me. I had never had an opportunity to work with deaf volunteers before, so I was keen to learn through the project. (Maral, Deaf Explorer)
CBC fulfilled a crucial role in the project by connecting and supporting the organisations involved. Stourbridge Glass Museum had not worked with Deaf Explorers before and did not have established links with the D/deaf community. The collaboration facilitated by CBC, together with the financial support they provided, enabled the project to take place.
Without CBC this project wouldn’t have happened this quickly. (Moemi, Stourbridge Glass Museum)
For Deaf Explorer, the involvement of CBC was important in facilitating conversations between themselves and the museum when challenges arose. These discussions allowed solutions to be found and ensured that new courses of action still fitted within the funding criteria for the project. Maral was also pleased to see how open CBC was to learn from the project and build a lasting relationship with Deaf Explorer.
Valuable learning experiences
The project has been a valuable learning experience for both CBC and Stourbridge Glass Museum in terms of the way that they approach working with the D/deaf community; both as potential volunteers and more generally as audience members. Both organisations underestimated the amount of time needed to establish a meaningful relationship with members of the D/deaf community. CBC’s Project Lead Fiona feels that the project has been a “big learning curve” in understanding the reasons that explain the extra time that is required for projects trying to engage the D/deaf community. Firstly, because English spoken and written language is not most Deaf people’s first language, meaning that communication takes longer. More importantly, the project has shown the time needed to establish relationships built on trust, due to cultural differences and the fact that the community has been excluded from society for so long.
We are at the beginning of that journey, there's obviously a huge amount of trust and bridge building that needs to take place… there's a long way to go in actually nurturing those relationships. (Fiona, CBC)
Expectations about what could be achieved during the 18 months that Fiona was in role had to be adapted. With Moemi’s help, Maral led a tour for D/deaf and hard of hearing visitors to the museum as a part of a ‘Go and See’ day for the D/deaf community funded by CBC. The tour was well-received by the 25 attendees. However, despite many signing up on the day to become volunteers, most of them later changed their mind due to uncertainty about the role, what would be expected of them and fears about not fitting in at the organisation.
Stourbridge Glass Museum, CBC and Deaf Explorers constructively worked together to explore other creative forms of volunteering at the museum. Three D/deaf volunteers have been supported by Deaf Explorers to film and edit videos with BSL translations about the museum and its collection. The aim is to make the museum a more inclusive and safe space for D/deaf and hard of hearing visitors. The volunteers are also making a BSL video about a volunteering opportunity specifically tailored to D/deaf volunteers to come and help the museum make its written information more accessible to D/deaf visitors. Deaf Explorer also organised a Deaf Awareness and BSL training session for staff at volunteers at Stroubridge Glass Museum. This was an important step in the journey to make the museum a safe and welcoming place for the D/deaf community.
Fiona feels that through this project she has learnt about Deaf culture and has a better understanding of the reasons why D/deaf people are less likely to want to volunteer at the museum and the questions and concerns they will have. She now understands that sometimes even tools that are put in place to make things more accessible, such as feedback forms, can actually be an additional barrier to particpation. She has learnt the importance of working with the community not for them.
I've really started to understand that it's no use trying to rush it because it's not going to happen, and I have to work to the time scales and the understanding and the abilities and the flexibilities of that group of people, not to what my expectations might be. (Fiona, CBC)
Maral shared insights into why volunteering at a hearing-led organisation is less likely to appeal to D/deaf and hard of hearing community members and the barriers they experience. D/deaf volunteers are often dependent on having access to a BSL interpreter to engage in a hearing environment, however, volunteers do not have access to a BSL interpreter through the Access to Work scheme so there will be questions about who would fund this. They need to feel safe and welcome in the space first and the opportunity has to have benefits for them, not just the museum.
In addition to the learning that has taken place, it is hoped that the project will have a wider impact on CBC and Stourbridge Glass Museum’s work with D/deaf communities in the future. Deaf Explorer are keen to continue to work with CBC and build the relationship. They would like CBC to recognise that in projects such as this, D/deaf communities need to be at the table from the very start, involved in setting objectives, applying for funding and planning outcomes. Likewise, CBC is hopeful that the relationship with Deaf Explorer, both for themselves and Stourbridge Glass Museum, can continue beyond the project.
This is just the little switch that gets the lights going, the first of the dominoes maybe. So that’s a positive to take from it. (Fiona, CBC)
All parties are excited for the future and looking forward to the filming of the BSL videos and the impact these will have.
Filming the sign language translation next week - that will be my highlight. I’m sure that’s going to be fantastic. I’m really looking forward to that and everybody working together on a shoot. (Maral, Deaf Explorer)