Manchester Deaf Centre has received £5,000 to fund new sign language videos for their website to make it more accessible for deaf British sign language users of all ages.

The donation was provided by the Santander Foundation, which offers Discovery Grants to UK registered charities for projects that help disadvantaged people in local communities.

The Manchester Deaf Centre provides education, advice, support, training and social activities for those directly or indirectly affected with a wide range of sensory impairments.

The grant will allow the Centre to purchase studio equipment to create professional BSL videos on demand. These will also form part of a new knowledge bank on the Centre’s website with educational, informative and topical videos for their service users to view using sign language.

Rachel Jebb, Project Manager at Manchester Deaf Centre, said: “Thanks to the Santander Foundation, groups such as the Deaf Activity Volunteering Experience Project (DAVE Project) can produce and film informative and creative videos for our website. This will provide deaf people with new skills and hopefully build their confidence for future projects.”

Linda Duers, Branch Manager at Santander’s Manchester branch said: “The Santander Foundation makes hundreds of donations every year to good causes throughout the UK. Our branch is committed to playing a key part in the community and we are delighted to be supporting Manchester Deaf Centre, and hope the donation makes a real difference to local blind people.”

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Notes to Editors:

Media Contact
Stephanie Harris at Santander           Tel: 020 7756 4221           M: 07841 506 668           E: stephanie.harris@santander.co.uk

Annie Roberts                                     Tel: 0161 2769330                                                     E: pa@manchesterdeafcentre.com


About Manchester Deaf Centre

Manchester Deaf Centre exists to deliver positive services for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people and to promote independence, rights and deafness as a culture. 


Santander Foundation
The Santander Foundation is at the heart of the Bank’s community activities, providing grants to small charities and social enterprises working with disadvantaged people to fund skills, knowledge and innovation projects across the UK. Discovery Grants of up to £5,000 are available to support three types of activity:

  • Explorer: improving people’s knowledge
  • Transformer: supporting skills and experience
  • Changemaker: innovative solutions to social challenges

Over the last five years, the Santander Foundation has provided £25 million in funding to 12,600 UK charities and in 2016 a further £5 million will be available through Discovery Grants and Staff Matched Donations. For more information please visit: www.santanderfoundation.org.uk


Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. It has brought real competition to the UK, through its innovative products for retail customers and relationship banking model for UK SMEs. At 31 December 2016, the bank serves around 14 million active customers with c20,000 employees and operates through 841 branches (which includes 60 university branches) and 67 regional Corporate Business Centres. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK. Santander UK plc customers are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK.

About Us
Banco Santander
(SAN SM, STD US, BNC LN) is a leading retail and commercial bank, headquartered in Spain, with a meaningful market share in 10 core countries in Europe and the Americas. It is among the world’s top banks by market capitalization. The bank’s purpose is to help people and businesses prosper, in a way that is simple, personal and fair. Founded in 1857, Santander had EUR 1.52 trillion in managed funds, 125 million customers, 12,200 branches and 188,000 employees at the close of 2016. Santander made attributable profit of EUR 6,204 million in 2016, an increase of 4% compared to the previous year.