King's Lynn supermarket champion supports West Norfolk Deaf Association
Morrisons supermarket champion has gone above and beyond to help West Norfolk Deaf Association and help raise awareness of the charity. and the store is also benefiting from recent training on communication awareness and best practice.
Tania Hanks rolled up her sleeves to help the West Norfolk charity prepare its children’s area for the restarting of a summer club. She visited the Railway Road headquarters to tidy the children’s garden area which is now ready for the return of the children’s group during the holidays.
The supermarket recently took part in a training day with WNDA to learn more about the difficulties that the profoundly deaf and those with acquired hearing loss have when doing simple things, like shopping at a supermarket.
It also supported WNDA throughout the pandemic and has put awareness cards on all its checkouts offering assistance.
When the communication training was completed, community champion Tania volunteered to help get the garden ready to be enjoyed by younger members of the deaf community.
The garden, along with the entire centre, was not open for use due to the pandemic and was more than ready to be spruced-up ahead of being re-opened.
“The garden area, although small, is a much-valued space for our younger members, but last year we had no visitors at all and it was in need of some TLC,” said Sarah Cox, retail manager and head of children’s services at the charity.
“Tania was brilliant and even donated some new games from Morrisons for the children to enjoy when they come back, we are really grateful for the continued support of both Tania and Julia, the Downham Market Community Champion.”
Along with Tania, store manager Callum Pilgrim, Downham’s Morrisons champion Julia Vaughan, Russell Walford, customer and community coach and Claire Goodson, regional technical manager were among those at the company who received training on communication awareness.
She said: “We feel it was a great experience and has changed our outlook on how we deal with awareness in-store and with our colleagues. It has given us a better understanding of the challenges facing deaf people within the community with daily tasks like shopping and going for a coffee. We look forward to taking it further with our staff in-store,”
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the centre has also been fully updated and revamped inside and is open to visitors once again along with its Downham Market-based No8 The Old Bookshop, offering hearing support and advice.
The charity helps thousands of people across the area and delivers hearing support, advocacy, social meetings, ear-wax clinics and room hire along with training and awareness events.