The roadshow in Scotland is happening again thanks to fresh funding from The Agnes Hunter Trust. This year we will be extending our Life Control project across the border and Rubbena and her team are providing deaf people in Scotland with a wide range of training, including Sexual Health, our new Prevent 2 Be Safe anti-terrorism training and the promotion of our Signly app.

One in six of the British population has some form of deafness. In Scotland this equates to 1 million, and of these it is estimated that about 60,000 have severe to profound hearing loss, 3,000 of whom are under 25 years old.

Our sexual health work in Scotland last year, revealed some alarming stories, issues involving sexting and grooming had already occurred and were being dealt with but still the young deaf people had not grasped the full implications of it. Despite attending some form of sex education few had understood the basics, even to the ways in which their bodies change during puberty. Parents were concerned about how their deaf children were moving into adulthood and whether they would be independent. This combination of concern and misunderstanding is what has driven the development of the Life Control project, providing a mix of topics that will help young deaf people move forward through adolescence into adulthood more confidently.