27 November 2025

Sense International’s work is made possible by our supporters and partners, whose generosity helps to fund our vital projects. Whether it’s teams taking part in charity fun-runs, event sponsorships, or holding fundraising events in offices, our corporate partnerships are vital to ensuring we can support people with deafblindness across the world. 

Since early 2025, we’ve partnered with Homes for Students,  student accommodation specialists based throughout the UK. The team’s enthusiasm for supporting Sense international’s work has been invaluable, from hosting webinars with students to learn more about deafblindness (and even learn some British Sign Language!) to holding a fundraising week at their accommodation across the country earlier this year. 

To shine a spotlight on our partnership, we spoke to Jess McDonnell, Communications Manager at Homes for Students, to learn more about what makes their partnership with Sense International so important to them, and how they’ve got involved with supporting the charity so far. 

Why is it important for Homes For Students and businesses in general to support a charity partner?  

At Homes for Students, one of our values is to be a ‘Force for Good’ and we live and breathe this value through our charity partnerships. We have a social responsibility to support meaningful causes and give back where we can – this is very much ingrained in the culture at HFS. We’re always keen to partner with organisations where our colleagues and residents can get involved too whether that’s through fundraising, awareness raising and learning, and even volunteering.   

Why have HFS chosen to support Sense International as their charity?  

Last year, HFS were invited to support Sense International’s 30th Anniversary Gala celebrations and we fell in love with the team and the incredible work they do from there. With Sense International’s support, we took the opportunity to expand our CSR programme with a charity that not only enriches the lives of the people they support, but also can help teach our residents and team members about the challenges many people live with both at home in the UK and around the world.  

How have HFS worked with Sense International so far this year?  

Aside from making a monetary donation, we want to maximise our partnership by fundraising and raising awareness with the over 1,200 colleagues at HFS and our thousands of residents.  

Though our partnership is still in its infancy, we’ve started to run several initiatives to support the charity. This has included a company ‘lunch & learn’ event with our central services team, where we got together virtually to really showcase the amazing work the charity does. We hosted a webinar at the beginning of our partnership for our operations teams to join. We played a “guess what’s in the bag” sense game and sent out a BSL fingerspelling video for them to have a go at with their teams. We’ve also had British sign language tutors come to our offices to teach colleagues the basics, and our properties have hosted cool awareness raising ‘taste-testing’ activities for the team and residents. These activities were about using different senses to showcase how those living with deafblindness experience the world in different ways.  

We also regularly meet up with the team to catch up on what the charity has coming up and how we can best support them.   

What have you learned about Sense International/deafblindness throughout the partnership? 

Through our partnership with Sense International, we’ve learned so much about the incredible work the charity does to support people with deafblindness around the world. We’ve gained a deeper understanding of the challenges that people with combined sight and hearing loss face every day, and how important communication, accessibility, and inclusion are in helping them live full and independent lives.  

What impact would you like to see from HFS’ support?  

We’d love to see our support make a real difference to the lives of people living with deafblindness – helping to fund vital projects that improve communication, education, and independence. Beyond financial impact, we also hope our partnership raises greater awareness and understanding among our residents and teams about what life is like for those with sensory impairments. Ultimately, we want our involvement to create a lasting culture of empathy, inclusion, and social responsibility across Homes for Students.   

Thanks so much to Homes for Students for their incredible support throughout the year – partnerships like ours help to open up new opportunities for people with deafblindness around the world. 

Interested in partnering with Sense International? Learn more via our Corporate Support and Trusts and Foundations pages, or get in touch with our Fundraising Officer Emma Wace at emma.wace@sense.org.uk