Nicholas’ end of year service update
As much as we’re currently very focused on the future, it is important to reflect on what we have achieved through our Peer Support Team and Hearing Link Services. Here, is a look back at the year from April 2024 to March 2025.
Take a moment to appreciate everything that you have achieved over the past 12 months.
We would like to extend a huge thanks to everyone for your excellent volunteering and support. Every ‘person reached’ now knows about the charity and our services, every ‘activity’ means another person will be living better with hearing loss.
Here’s how the year went…
| Services Total | |
| Total activity | 555 |
| Number of times volunteers deployed | 490 |
| Volunteer hours | 1682.5 |
| People helped | 1479 |
| People reached | 1113 |
Helpdesk
| Helpdesk – Total number of people helped | 378 |
| Times volunteers engaged | 232 |
| Volunteer Hours | 232 |
An incredibly grateful 378 people contacted the Helpdesk over the year with peer support being delivered 232 times. It does vary, but we estimate an hour is an average time to complete each request, including research and write up.
The 146 times we replied directly to enquirers was for direct information that, though important to the enquirer, didn’t touch on lived experience as part of the reply. Recent examples include: ‘Where do I go for a hearing test near me?’ or ‘Can I purchase my own CROS hearing aids?’
Helpful Hours
| Helpful Hours – Audiology | |
| Number of sessions | 14 |
| People helped | 108 |
| Times volunteers engaged | 24 |
| Volunteer hours | 48 |
| Helpful Hours – Healthcare | |
| Number of sessions | 8 |
| People helped | 112 |
| Times volunteers engaged | 15 |
| Volunteer hours | 30 |
These fabulous figures include delivery of both in-person and online sessions, in a year where we introduced our second subject of ‘Managing your healthcare with hearing loss’.
There are six volunteers who have presented or co-presented in the year and with a pre-session run-through and post-session debrief, each session takes two hours to complete. We haven’t counted the hours for development, which included personal time as well as attending a one-hour weekly session. This is important to acknowledge as we look to develop the service in the new strategy.
LinkUp Support Groups
| LinkUp Support Groups | |
| Number of sessions | 10 |
| People helped | 145 |
| Volunteer engagements | 34 |
| Volunteer hours | 644 |
We were able to deliver 10 LinkUp Support Groups in the past year. These also presented training opportunities for 15 peer support volunteers (both with and without hearing loss) from all over the UK to develop important presentation, technical, and inter-personal skills.
Each LinkUp weekend involves arriving early on Friday afternoon for briefing and set-up, and the full commitment is calculated as 20 hours per volunteer for the whole weekend. Every one is unique and hugely appreciated all those lucky enough to attend.
Other activities
We were also kept nice and busy with plenty of other activities including:
- Events – Externally organised events where we had an information stand and presence.
- Talks and Presentations – By invitation or sourced by the volunteer themselves primarily to community groups.
- Community Days – Organised for our partnerships by our Partnership Instructor colleagues in every region of the UK.
- Professional Networks – We also raised awareness of the services to several organisations within the sector.
Communications
Teams
The Teams channels proved to be consistently popular for engagement and news over the year.
| Average Monthly Users | 32 |
| Total posts | 140 |
| All Replies & Reactions | 828 |
We hope you enjoyed and appreciated the posts and will continue to do so in future. Do keep logging in and checking on updates, news and comments.