Deafroots’ primary objective is to promote deaf awareness and to provide training and support to deaf and hard of hearing people to ensure preparedness for employment.
How we worked with the Evaluation Exchange
The team developed a workable and practical evaluation framework for Deafroots that captures key input, indicators and outcomes. To do this the team have designed and run feedback sessions with users of Deafroots’ services to uncover participants’ motivation to attend programmes, their experience, what they take away from it, and what they feel they gained.
Legacy for Deafroots
The experience has led to an understanding of the lasting social and economic value created by Deafroots in the community. The process has helped the organisation review and analyse the congruency between the organisation’s objectives and their client’s motivations and expectations.
Legacy for the students and researchers
Working as a team on a project that can potentially impact another person’s self-confidence and skills in their ability to secure jobs humbled us and instilled in us the awareness of how we all have a dream for a better future. As students, we learnt that creativity, bravery, and the willingness to try new ideas open up doors of opportunities.
We hoped that our brief exchange with Deafroots and the deaf and hard of hearing community made the participants feel listened to, acknowledged, and motivated to continue their professional and self-enrichment journey. It was a great experience working with Deafroots. We hoped our findings on what motivates participation in Deafroots’ programmes fostered a better understanding and matching of clients’ needs and organisations’ objectives and provided tools for future evaluations.
Students and researchers involved
- Susana Colinas Fischer (PhD student, Neuroscience)
- Nuraishah Mokhtar (PhD student, Security and Crime Science)