'Save our centre': How the Leeds Society for Deaf and Blind People has been supporting locals for 160 years
A Leeds society that has been a vital resource for deaf and blind people for more than 160 years is calling for help - as it faces an unstable future.
The Leeds Society for Deaf and Blind People (LSDBP) helps people across the city to access services, offers accessibility training to external organisations and is a hub for social activity.
From BSL interpretation to a choir, braille printing to bingo, the LSDBP is a key source of support within the community.
Yet, with limited funding available, the centre’s future is unstable.
That’s why the LSDBP launched an ongoing fundraiser on GoFundMe last year to support the longevity of the society.
Donna Burrows, a trustee of the LSDBP, sees the centre as a space where she is treated “as an equal”. To sustain the centre, she believes more people need to know that it exists.
Donna said: “I’d love for more people to know about this place and to come. The more people that come, the potential we have to grow and we can offer more.
“We can make it stronger.”
The LSDBP was first founded 160 years ago in 1866. Since the very start, it has maintained a single objective: to respond to the needs of the deaf and blind community.
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In 1976, the society’s Centenary House base was opened by the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. 40 years later, they relocated to St Mary’s Street but remained as a centre point for deaf and blind people to connect.
For Jason Hixon, chairman of LSDBP, the society was something he first discovered by chance as a teenager. He’d attended a deaf school but hadn’t known that there were other forms of local support available.
Jason said: “I went into town and bumped into three or four deaf people who were going to the pub and they were all signing. My head was blown.
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“They introduced me to the deaf club and I never realised there was a deaf club - I didn’t realise there was more outside of school.”
Though the LSDBP is based in Leeds, people from surrounding areas including Halifax, Huddersfield, and Harrogate come to use its services due to the limited support for the deaf and blind community available.
The centre is a vital communication hub for the deaf and blind community.
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Christine Roche, a trustee at the LSDBP said: “There’s nowhere else in Leeds that you can walk into Monday to Friday and have somebody here that will sign.
“There’s no other place that you can walk into and just talk to somebody. We are unique.”
Christine has been involved with the LSDBP for the past three decades after her son Sam was born deaf.
Sam has regularly attended the centre from early childhood and it’s a place where he can understand others and feel understood.
Christine said: “He wants to be here more than anywhere else in the world.
“It’s the only place where he knows he understands people all the time.”
The LSDBP plays an important role in Leeds not only in the deaf and blind services it provides but its social group activities and range of events from regular quizzes to comedy nights.
To help with fundraising, it has many exciting plans this spring, including the planting of a ‘Tree of Hope’ from a sapling from the Sycamore Gap, and the launch of its March a Million challenge.
It will also continue its social groups, including a choir, walking group, and photography group, which members of the community are invited to attend.
But their overall message can be summarised simply by Sam.
“Save our centre.”