Carlisle United were thrilled on Saturday to be joined by two of our very own EDI Volunteers, Shelley Harrison and Rebecca Kiggins, to showcase their lived experience of Deaf Awareness and their roles within Cumbria Deaf Association
They were joined by chief executive Nigel Clibbens, finance director Suzanne Kidd, social media manager Rob Elder, Blues Store manager Stefanie McLean and ticket office manager Lucy Weston.
Shelley gave a talk on her lived experience growing up as a CODA (child of a deaf adult) which was very moving and gave us all a great insight into life as a CODA.
Rebecca also shared her lived experiences as well as providing a session on signing the alphabet and deaf awareness.
We were also joined by Andrew Barnes from Deafblind UK who provided information on the organisation he represents and his lived experience.
Teresa Mulholland, CUFC EDI lead, said: "A huge thank you to Shelley, Rebecca and our guests for the Deaf Awareness session. Events like this will help us to raise our understanding, improve communication, and foster inclusivity for our deaf community fan base.
"We are so proud of our EDI volunteers who are helping to deliver important educational sessions such as this to our club and fan base."
Shelley Harrison said: "It was lovely to see Nigel Clibbens waving his jazz hands during our presentations!
"Next season, we will book a better date with warmer weather and deliver again to a wider and bigger audience. Those who attended really enjoyed their free tickets to the game too. Thank you to
Teresa Mulholland and CUFC for their kind hospitality.
"We would like to arrange an away trip to Doncaster to visit their big deaf community and watch Carlisle play again. This is on Saturday 29 March, keep an eye out for further news!"
Nigel Clibbens said: "It was a great event to take part in.
"We are committed to improving the match experience for all fans and this is an important initiative to understand the issues so we can then make improvements.
"We look forward to doing more and see this go from strength to strength."
