Project notes: Teenz United, Nottingham

Goals: To provide activities to promote good communication and encourage independence, build confidence and develop teamwork for young people with a cochlear implant. Young people can also get up-to-date information on their implant

Funding: Teenz United receives ongoing funding of about 5,000 a year from The Ear Foundation

Teenz United is for teenagers with cochlear implants. The project, aimed at 12- to 18-year-olds, meets on five Saturdays a year and offers a range of summer residential programmes during August.

This year, Saturday activities have included punting in Cambridge and a visit to the theatre in Nottingham.

Young people from all over the UK attend the project. Liz Beadle, teenage co-ordinator at the Nottingham Cochlear Implant Programme, which runs Teenz United in conjunction with The Ear Foundation, says: "A cochlear implant is a hearing aid that is implanted into the skull and worn with an external speech processor. Some teenagers received their cochlear implant when they were young children, and they have to accept responsibility for technology they did not choose. Some teenagers choose to have their cochlear implant as a teenager because they have deteriorating hearing loss. But they all have to cope with all the new technology."