From the newsroom of the Community Newswire, London, England, Friday, May 27, 2005 .....

BOOST FOR DEAF CULTURAL CENTRE

SOCIAL Deaf Birmingham

By Dan Webber, Community Newswire

A Birmingham-based deaf charity today learned it is to receive a £2.5 million funding windfall from a Home Office-backed scheme.

BID Services with Deaf People will receive the grant from Futurebuilders England to support its proposals to create a cultural centre for deaf people in the city.

BID, also known as the Birmingham Institute for the Deaf, provides services to deaf people in conjunction with local authorities throughout the Midlands, including opportunities for young people and sign language interpretation.

Spokesman Bryan Sheppard said: "Many deaf people in Birmingham and surrounding areas have been helped by BID. By working with the deaf community and local authorities over the last 106 years, BID has grown the services that it provides.

"With the construction of the Deaf Cultural Centre we will be able to expand and enhance our services further, enabling even more deaf and hard of hearing adults and children across the West Midlands to have an improved quality of life."

Richard Gutch, chief executive of Futurebuilders England, said :``Futurebuilders' latest investments support the groundbreaking work being done by voluntary and community groups across England.

"There is a great well of talent working within the voluntary sector and we're increasingly seeing what a difference it can make to the delivery of our public services."

Futurebuilders, a Home Office-backed investment fund, said it is able to tailor its support to the needs of individual voluntary groups, including development grants to smaller organisations to deliver well-crafted, local services to communities.

© 2005 The Press Association

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