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
Download and use the Seven Signs of speech and language and communication difficulties for children and adult booklets in your service and campaign activities.
There are seven adult and children posters each raising awareness of a different language and communication difficulty. The posters have been designed to improve understanding and awareness of speech, language and communication needs amongst your clinical colleagues:
Adult posters
Aphasia
Dysarthria
Dysphagia
Dysphonia
Dementia
Learning Disability
Stammering
Children’s Posters
Language impairment
Speech sounds
Stammering
Voice Disorder
Social Communication difficulties
Glue ear/Otitis media
Cleft lip/Palate
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.
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.
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.
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.
Voice Box is a UK-wide joke competition for 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. The competition is run by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT).
Congratulations to eight-year-old Leo Jones from Llangors Church in Wales School in Brecon, who won the Voice Box Wales competition final on 3 April 2019, with his joke:
An inflatable boy went to an inflatable school with an inflatable headmaster. One day the inflatable boy went running around the whole school with a drawing pin going: “Phst, phst, phst” and popping everything he could find.
The inflatable headmaster called the inflatable boy to the office and said: “I’m very disappointed in you. You’ve let me down; you’ve let yourself down and you’ve left the whole school down.”
An additional 20 schoolchildren will be heading to London to compete in the Voice Box England and Scotland competition final on 30 April 2019.
They are:
We’re looking forward to hearing all your jokes soon!
February
RCSLT awareness event resources - February 2019
March
RCSLT awareness event resources - March 2019
April
June
September
