About The Lisa Project
Our Story
The Lisa project is a Community Interest Company established in memory of Lisa Mascarenhas, a vibrant and fun-loving individual who aimed to bring joy to everyone she encountered. Many in the North East Deaf community will remember her for her entertaining Deafland Vlogs. Her family and friends cherish the memories of someone taken too soon at just 32 years old. In her honour, we are dedicated to enhancing deaf awareness and uniting people from diverse backgrounds through signing and singing.
Our Mission
We aim to use singing and signing to foster connection, inclusion, and wellbeing across generations and communities. We use music and sign language as tools to connect groups in the North East who might otherwise not cross paths. These connections then allow for meaningful relationships amongst these communities, improving their wellbeing, preventing isolation, but most importantly, creating a more empathetic and inclusive world.
Our Founder
Natasha was Lisa's sister. As a qualified language teacher with over two decades of experience, she feels very much at home teaching sign language to people of all ages and backgrounds. Having sung from the age of 7 years, Natasha knows all too well the benefits of singing for emotional wellbeing and self-regulation. Her psychology degree showed her that the mere exposure to something new is enough to make people less fearful and more welcoming of it. This is what she hopes to achieve with The Lisa Project Programmes - a world that embraces sign language.