Catalin is autistic, Romanian and has a hearing problem. He invented his own sign language, so it is very hard for him to communicate with anyone else in the community. He comes to the Cranleigh Court Hub in Yate with his step-mother, Theodora:

“He loves coming to the group. He brought his birthday cake to share with everyone. In our home country, Romania, he was isolated and treated like a pariah but here he is treated nice regardless of his communication difficulty. He wants to please everyone and be part of the group and community. It is very important to him.”

Catalin helps run the Coffee Group and community events at the Cranleigh Court hub. Our Yate Community Development Workers are now supporting Catalin and his family, and are working with Centre for Deaf in Bristol to explore if they can host a learning space for British Sign language (BSL) in the Cranleigh Court Community Hub so all users of the hub can learn and better communicate with Catalin!

Find out about our work in Yate HERE.

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