Dorset teenager joins NDCS youth advisory board
by Lucy Armstrong
Hello, I am Lucy, I am 13 years old, I am a year 9 pupil at The Thomas Hardye School and I live with my mum, dad and sister Katie. My hobbies are reading, playing my clarinet, rugby, singing, netball and running. I play rugby for Dorchester RFC U15 and sing in the Thomas Hardye Harmony group.
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Earlier this year I applied to be a member of the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) Youth Advisory Board - The Buzz! To be honest I just gave it a go to see if I would be successful but I really did want to make a difference for deaf and hearing impaired young people.
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It was amazing when I received the letter to say I had been accepted to attend a weekend in Birmingham and take part
Lucy meeting Annette Brooks MP at the Liberal Democrats Conference in Brighton
in a workshop to form the new YAB for the next 18 months. We spent time getting to know each other and then soon started working on our campaign 'Stolen Futures' helping to save services for deaf children across the country.......here in Dorset with the help of DDCS and the Hearing Advisory Service young people receive amazing support, but this is not always the case in other parts of the country.
In my role as a young ambassador for NDCS I recently represented all deaf and hearing impaired young people at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton. I was lucky to meet many influential politicians to support Stolen Futures including Annette Brooks, MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole.
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I also supported the Dorset Hearing Support Service at the beginning of term by speaking at a training day. The PowerPoint I made helped to show the support needed for a hearing impaired child in school.
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I will be off to London for a weekend in November to continue my work with NDCS YAB and I look forward to representing all our young people here in Dorset. If you would like any more information about YAB or have any ideas how we can support deaf young people please contact me through the DDCS network.
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Thank you!