by Nicole Duff, Membership Development Manager
Part of any growth strategy is to become more and more accessible and inclusive. Throughout the past few years, East Shore has continued to improve. Here are some ways we are opening our doors to more people!
Automatic Doors
THANK YOU to all those who contributed to the Auction’s Fund-A-Need this past year! With the excess funds contributed during the Auction, we are able to add an automatic door to both sets of the Sanctuary Building doors, as well as the primary Administration Building door, and front door of the Education Building. The work has begun already, and will be completed soon.
Hearing Devices
With help from the ACE Media Team, we have hearing devices available to use for ALL programs that use the sound system in the Sanctuary. This includes large events and even smaller ones like Meaningful Movies. The sound system is also T-Coil compatible, meaning if you have a T-Coil hearing device, you should be able to just listen along!
Other smaller events are encouraged to use the portable sound system, or if showing a video, to turn on closed captioning.
One improvement we hope to make on the new website is to better define which events will have hearing accessibility.
Large Print & Braille Hymnals
During worship, we offer large print hymnals. They are spiral-bound and located in the back of the Sanctuary. There is also a Braille hymnal located in the office of our Membership Development Manager with hymns available upon request.
Gender Neutral Restrooms
The restrooms in both the Sanctuary and the Education Building are now considered Gender Neutral. This means people can choose to use the restroom they feel most comfortable with. A private restroom is available in the Administration Building. You will also find menstrual products available in both restrooms in the Sanctuary, which is part of making the restrooms Gender Neutral.
While some of these changes may seem small, they make a huge impact to those looking for a safe, welcoming, and loving space. We appreciate your ideas in how we can continue to grow!