Deaf Education lead Christmas Shoebox Appeal

08 Dec 2016

Colleagues in Deaf Education have led a campaign across the University to create boxes of essential items and gifts for the homeless this Christmas

Manchester Homeless Christmas Shoebox Appeal is a project which gets people collecting much needed items (such as warm hats, gloves, toiletries, chocolate etc) and creating gifts wrapped in shoeboxes for homeless people at Xmas time.

Deaf Education (part of the Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness) have led a campaign to create these boxes and have received donations from many kind people throughout the University this year.  The result has been 31 cram-packed boxes which are now on their way to the charity.

The University's response and activity has been led by its clear ethos around social responsibility. Led by Professor Wendy McCracken and Lecturer Helen Chilton, academic staff who are usually committed to improving educational opportunities for deaf children and young people, this project was something of a 'break from the norm'.

Professor McCracken said "Our team is built on strong foundations of social responsibility. This year we desperately wanted to give something back to a group of people we do not usually work with. We are so pleased with the generous contributions from our colleagues.  This year we have 31 boxes, next year perhaps we can double or treble that?"

Deaf Education would like to thank individuals across the University who generously contributed and also colleagues across Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness (ManCAD) who gave time and energy to packing the boxes.

Stop press: A few late donations and unbelievably generous donations student from a student at Salford University who heard about us has increased the number of boxes to 40!