The Giving Voice campaign aims to ‘give voice’ to people with speech, language and communication needs – to ensure their requirements, and those of their carers and families are met.
Our aim is to demonstrate how speech and language therapy makes a difference to individuals and the broader society across the UK.
Giving Voice helps speech and language therapy services to demonstrate speech and language therapists’ unique value to national and local decision makers, while showing evidence of our efficiency and value for money.
'Campaigning’ is a very broad term, describing everything from a community group getting together to petition against the closure of a local swimming pool, to a presidential election campaign which reverberates around the globe.
The Giving Voice campaign looks different wherever RCSLT members pick up and run with the concept. However, by promoting the four principal messages below, our collective activity contributes towards a groundswell of awareness and appreciation of the role of speech and language therapy in our communities.
Our key messages:
This toolkit is designed to support RCSLT members who want to participate in Giving Voice campaigning. If you feel you need further training or assistance after reading the toolkit, please contact us and we will endeavour to help you.
Download the Giving Voice Toolkit
Our local influencing pages provide resources that will help you demonstrate to your local stakeholders how you:
These factsheets include case studies and peoples’ stories showing how Speech and Language Therapy changes lives.
Download the Giving Voice factsheets
Using Giving Voice merchandise is a simple and effective way to spread the campaign message among your professional colleagues and at events with the public and politicians. We have a range of items – everything from badges and pens to booklets and balloons – for you to choose from. Simply download the order form, fill it in and email to campaigns@rcslt.org today.
To encourage members to engage in the Giving Voice campaign, the RCSLT has created a local activity fund, out of which up to £200 will be awarded each quarter to up to three Giving Voice campaign groups.
Since the campaign launched in autumn 2010, members have excelled at planning and delivering local Giving Voice activity with no financial support from the RCSLT. This fund is designed to enable a selection of the most ambitious, creative and innovative ideas to get off the ground. The RCSLT strongly encourages its members to continue to plan Giving Voice activities that are low or no cost. Many services and student groups have managed this so far to great effect.
If you wish to offset any of the £200 against Giving Voice merchandise, please also complete the Giving Voice merchandise form and send it back together with the completed local activity fund application.
Download the Giving Voice Local Activity Fund application form
You are able to download and use these Giving Voice logos on the material you produce for your campaign. However, please also download the Giving Voice logo guidelines to adhere to the rules of usage.
International Stammering Awareness Day took place on 22 October this year.
There are many misconceptions about stammering in the media and among the general public, so the RCSLT used this day to raise awareness of the reality of living with a stammer – and we encouraged our members and service users to do the same.
We created two posters that you can download below, to help you raise awareness of stammering among your friends, colleagues and the general public. These can be printed and displayed in your workplace or shared via social media.
Many thanks to cartoonist Gareth Cowlin and author Paul O’Meara, the talented creatives who helped to put these posters together.
On Tuesday 22 October the Giving Voice Twitter channel also underwent a ‘takeover’ from Paul, who answered questions about what it’s like living with a stammer. Be sure to search #AskAStammerer to catch up on the conversation!
The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists continuously reviews the way it puts you at the heart of its activity, which is why we have undertaken an exciting UK-wide video project which celebrates and highlights the valuable work you do.
Join us and be part of this amazing journey and together we will showcase how speech and language therapists support and transform the lives of people with communication and/or swallowing difficulties.
Target audience for the project:
This project has been designed to enable partnership working so that together we can co-produce a powerful resource for both the speech and language therapy profession and the public.
We are looking for:
If you would like to get involved, please capture stories on video and send them to us with a copy of the signed consent form (see download section below) so we can help promote your work.
Please view and download the toolkit below to get you started and if you want to follow the conversation around the Storytelling Project on social media you can use #SLTStories .
Of course, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch and the team will endeavour to help.
Ryan has had severe communication difficulties since birth. Watch his story and see how speech and language therapy has helped him.
Christine has had a stammer all her life. She discusses what it's like and how speech and language therapy has helped her.
Clodagh is recovering from a stroke, which initially caused her to be locked-in. She discusses how speech and language therapists played a pivotal role in her recovery.
If you’ve got an interesting story to share and want to inspire other Giving Voice campaigners, please email 250-500 words and some good quality images to campaigns@rcslt.org and we’ll help you promote your activities to a wider audience.
If you’re posting news of your Giving Voice activities on Twitter you may also want to alert the RCSLT by tagging @GivingVoiceUK and @RCSLT in your tweets.
Held annually by the RCSLT, the Giving Voice Awards celebrate the impactful activities and achievements of Giving Voice campaigners as well as recognising those who have contributed to improving the lives of people with communication and/or swallowing needs. Stay tuned as we’ll be announcing this year’s winners later this month.
The RCSLT leads this campaign annually (usually in Spring) to highlight how dysphagia affects people’s lives, and how speech and language therapists transform the experiences of those living with the condition.
The 2019 campaign reached 2.46 million people in 55 countries across the world. Details about the RCSLT’s 2020 campaign will be announced later this year.
Voice Box is a UK-wide joke competition for main stream and special primary schools, which reminds people that all children need support to build their communication skills and confidence and some need additional specialist help to speak and/or understand what is being said to them.
My Journey My Voice is the critically acclaimed multimedia exhibition featuring stories and portraits of people with communication disabilities, which has been touring Northern Ireland.
The exhibition, which features nine portraits by local photographer Laurence Gibson, is a collaborative project. It has been commissioned by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists as part of its Giving Voice campaign and is supported by Disability Action and the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Board.
February
RCSLT awareness event resources - February 2019
March
RCSLT awareness event resources - March 2019
April
June
September
RCSLT awareness event resources - September
November
December
Voice Box is a joke competition for mainstream and special primary schools.
The competition is aimed at building confidence, supporting children’s communication skills and raising awareness that some children need additional specialist help to speak or understand what is being said to them.
We are inviting mainstream and special primary schools in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland to hold joke competitions to find their pupil’s funniest joke. Schools should send their chosen joke to georgia.haire@rcslt.org from 1 October and by 29 November 2019.
Schools in Wales should send their chosen joke to wales@rcslt.org by Friday 20 December 2019 and we will shortlist the best jokes. We will invite the shortlisted joke-tellers and their parent or guardian and, speech and language therapist or teacher to the National Assembly for Wales before Easter break in 2020 for a live final.
Here you will find:
On 12 December voters will head to the polling stations to have their say via the ballot box in the next UK general election.
As election candidates start campaigning in earnest, the RCSLT will be working nationally to influence the manifestos of the three main UK political parties (the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats) to enable better lives for people with speech, language, communication and swallowing needs and ensure that they have access to the support that they need.
To enable members to engage their local candidates effectively and get speech and language therapy on the political agenda, we have produced the following resources for you to use and share with colleagues:
Health and education matters are among the powers devolved to the UK nations. As such, parties that do not stand candidates in England are unlikely to include wording in their manifestos related to these areas, and will instead include them in manifestos for the devolved elections, currently scheduled for 2021. The manifesto asks related to communication access are appropriate throughout the UK.
If you would like any more information, or advice, please contact the RCSLT’s public affairs adviser Peter Just: peter.just@rcslt.org
To register to vote visit www.gov.uk/register-to-vote and complete the short online application before midnight on 26 November.
