The DEX Deaf Youth Council (DDYC) has finished the ASDAN Citizenship course which was delivered entirely in BSL, as were the assessments. The course developed skills including learning, teamwork and problem solving.

There have been monthly workshops and trips over the last year. The six modules covered were Law and Order, Government and Democracy, Community and volunteering, Finance, Rights and Responsibilities and Global Citizenship. For each module, the group had talks from West Yorkshire Police, a solicitor specialising in human rights issues and Jill Jones on Magna Carta (Law and Order/ Rights and Responsibilities), Amnesty International (Global Citizenship) and Ernesto del Carpio, Deaf CAB Adviser (Finance).

Trips included visits to: the Supreme Court (Law and Order), the Bank of England (Finance), Jon Trickett MP and the Chair of Hemsworth Parish Council and Constituency Labour Party meetings (Government and Democracy), Wakefield Council Recycling Centre and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (Community volunteering to beach clean and learn about pollution).

Whilst we were in London, we managed to take in a tour by John Wilson, Deaf tour Guide, at Hampton Court (which was originally a court – for the Law and Order module) and did group activities with Deafinitely Theatre.

Some of the DDYC wanted to be assessed and so eight members passed the course, with different levels of credits. Three of these gained 6 credits which was a full mark. The DDYC members who were assessed all signed their answers to the course work challenges in BSL on their mobile phones. The quality of information in BSL for the assessments was really high.

Very many thanks go to Steve Gibson, Project Manager, for his facilitation and motivational skills, and to all the DDYC members who took part in this successful pilot project.