Celebrating the Success of NZSL Clubs

Over the past few months, our NZSL Clubs have brought people together across Hamilton, Dunedin, and Invercargill to learn, practise, and enjoy NZSL in a relaxed and welcoming environment.

Thanks to funding from the NZSL Fund, we successfully delivered a one-year NZSL Club project across three locations. Each club ran for eight sessions, resulting in more than 40 NZSL Club sessions being delivered overall, with over 150 participants taking part along the way.

The clubs were designed to create a fun and supportive space where people could build confidence using NZSL outside of a classroom setting. Whether participants were completely new to signing or already had some experience, the clubs provided a valuable opportunity to connect, communicate, and practise together.

A huge part of the success of the clubs has been the dedication and enthusiasm of our 8 facilitators, who helped create engaging and inclusive sessions for everyone involved.

We have received lots of fantastic feedback from participants, with many sharing how much they appreciated having a casual environment to continue learning and using NZSL:

"I have learnt a lot and feel more confident signing."

"The regular meetups gave me a safe space to practise signing."

"Thank you for these clubs because my sign in the community. I don't often have the chance to use sign language and you have all made me feel welcome and included."

"Having a Deaf-led environment gives authenticity and helps me understand Deaf culture better."

"People of all walks of life are welcome and everyone is treated equally."

They survey is still available for you to give feedback here.

These clubs continue the success of previous NZSL Clubs held in Auckland, Napier, Willington, Tauranga and Christchurch with funding from the NZSL Fund. It has been exciting to see the demand and enthusiasm for community-based NZSL opportunities continue to grow throughout New Zealand.

We would like to sincerely thank the NZSL Fund for supporting these clubs and helping make NZSL learning opportunities more accessible for communities around New Zealand.

While the current funding has now come to an end, we are exploring ways to keep these clubs going. We are currently seeking feedback from communities about the possibility of introducing NZSL Club memberships, which could help provide some financial support for clubs to continue operating in the future.

Your feedback is important and will help shape the future of NZSL Club. We encourage you to complete the survey before it closes on the 30^th July.  

We also understand that some facilitators may choose to continue running groups

within their own regions. Merge NZ is happy to support locally run NZSL Clubs and can provide an NZSL Club package to help get you started. Please contact us if you would like more information.

If you are interested in finding out more about ways to practise NZSL where you live, get in touch with us at comms@mergenz.co.nz