Lucy Wox guest blogs about her weeklong work placement at Seven Stories (August 2017). Lucy is aged 18 and passionate about books. Lucy is deaf and has cerebral palsy. During her placement, Lucy worked Front of House at the visitor centre with the operations team and in the Seven Stories Bookshop.
On my first day at Seven Stories, in the morning we covered health and safety. I also met the story catchers and did some deaf awareness training with Seven Stories staff on how best to communicate with me.
My role was based at the visitor centre and included things such as sharpening pencils, tidying up each floor and making sure things were set up for story times and shows.
I was surprised at how the staff kept in mind the communication tips that I mentioned at the beginning and I didn't have to remind them. That was awesome; normally I have to remind people constantly.
I wore a badge that said ‘I am Deaf’ so that customers knew. That was a huge help.
Throughout the week, as I got more involved, I really started to see how happy the children were engaging with books. I definitely see the impact of having access to books and language. I love to read. You can learn a lot from books and apply what you learn to real life.
My favourite part of the week was when I got to spend time with Sharleene and Gina in the Bookshop. I had so much fun! My task was to choose some books, read a bit of them and say what I thought about each one.
All the staff were very helpful and told me clearly what I needed to do and guided me through the week. They made sure I knew exactly what was going on.
I didn't have a radio as I wouldn't be able to hear it, so the Front of House team gave me a rota as a guide and I was free to go on any of the floors to tidy or sharpen pencils. However, if I needed to know where a specific person was, I'd have to get another person to contact the person via radio and then they would relay it back to me.
Overall, I've really enjoyed my time at Seven Stories and I think this is one of the best places I've done a work placement.
If you are interested in volunteering or doing a work placement at Seven Stories, get in touch by emailing info@sevenstories.org.uk!