Speak Out National Residential Weekend 2017

By Trustee, Helen Quiller

Registered Charity No. 1141886 October is AAC Awareness Month

A world where the voice of every child and adult is listened to and heard,

however they communicate

Dates for your Diary:

Please note that 1Voice Members are welcome at any 1Voice Event.

26/10/17—Lakes & Bay Boat Trip

05/11/17—Warrington Pop-up

26/11/17—1Voice South East Event

10/12/17—1Voice Lancs Santa Dash

Check the 1Voice website for details of upcoming events— www.1voice.info/events.

Shelley Makin Award Congratulations to James Robshaw who won the inau-gural Shelley Makin Award for his wit and humour. This is an annual certificate awarded in memory of Shelly Makin, a former 1Voice Role Model, who really enjoyed comedy. The winning joke:

Two sausages are sizzling in a pan.

One says, “can you smell burning”?

The other says, “flipping heck, a talking sausage?

This year our annual residential weekend took place at Derwen College in Shropshire. We were able to secure funding, thanks to Jessie’s Fund, for a group of musicians to run a workshop with our young people.

We all arrived on Friday afternoon and enjoyed meeting up with old friends and new. We were pleased to welcome six new families this year. On Friday evening I gave my first welcome speech as Vice-Chairman. Lois then led us through a Lego activity. It was really fun working out different jobs for the team members, such as being Foreman, the Designers and the Builders. We all enjoyed the evening and there were lots of ideas about what to design.

On Saturday morning the musicians arrived and set up all the instru-ments and equipment. We split up into our various groups. I helped lead the adult AAC group. We spent some time exploring the differ-ent instruments and then slowly started to create a piece of music. Some of us chose to say lyrics through our AAC devices which was very effective alongside the music. At the end of the afternoon, it was time to share our work with the other groups and parents. I really enjoyed watching the younger group and seeing how much they had created in such a short time. A huge thank you to the Musicians!

Everyone had a great night dancing and chatting at the 1Voice disco.

On Sunday morning the young people put their joke telling skills to

the test whilst the parents heard from the Co-Chairs of Communication Matters about the work that they do.

Over lunch all the participants and volunteers received their certificates of attendance.

Thank you to all the partici-pants, volunteers and trustees for another fantastic national event.

SAVE THE DATE: NATIONAL EVENT 2018, 27—29 JULY 2018. TRELOAR’S COLLEGE HAMPSHIRE, GU34 4GL (subject to funding).

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Branch and Pop-up News

1voicelakesandbay@1voice.info FB: Lakes&Bay Closed group

Lakes & Bay is our oldest branch. It was set up prior to the start of 1Voice as a way to find other people who use AAC for a 10 year old boy to meet.

It continues to go from strength to strength and organises activities on a regular basis.

Activities include bowling, picnics and adapted bikes, boat trips on Windermere, fundraising Ceidlidhs, a Christmas party and out-door pursuits at Bendrigg Lodge. There is always plenty of time to chat.

1Voice South East The Branch recently held a ‘Heroes and Zeros’ event where members explored goodies and baddies from the world of books, films and TV with fun games,

quizzes and activities. The following story was written by the AAC users: Once upon a time, there was an evil beast called Bob who lived in a market. Dolores Umbridge was his friend who went to the market to meet Mr. Tumble and to buy some tissues, evil bloom-ers and chocolate cake. They wanted to barbe-cue Shaun the Sheep and make sausages out of Peppa Pig. Spongebob Squarepants arrives (in his dressing gown) with the BFG who picks up Shaun the Sheep. The BFG has a van to take Shaun to his castle by the seaside. There’s a secret room in the castle with a secret tunnel to the beach. Sad Ending: It was a trap! Bob and Dolores were waiting for them on the beach! Bob and Dolores threw them in the sea and they drowned.

Happy Ending: They all shared chocolate cake, chocolate milkshake, chocolate ice cream and chocolate brownies, which turned Bob and Dolores into nice people and they became friends.

October is AAC Awareness Month

1Voice Lancs

1Voice Lancs enjoyed a game of bowling in August. It was great to catch up with friends.

1Voice Lancs members are taking part in the Mesnes Park 5km Santa Dash in December to raise funds for their branch. If you would like to join them, get in touch.

Plans are currently underway for events in the following areas: Manchester Cheshire East of England West Yorkshire Beds/Herts/Bucks If you are interested in finding out more about upcoming events and opportunities to volunteer please get in touch with Jo at info@1voice.info and your details will be passed on to the relevant contacts.

1Voice aims to bring together AAC users and family/friends wherever possible. 1Voice works with local volunteers to set up branches around the country. Branches choose activities, themes, dates and times to suit the needs of their members as well as accessing national events. Pop-ups are infrequent local activ-ities/events, again supported by volunteers. You can find your nearest branch by visiting our website: www.1voice.info.

Breaking News...

1Voice members are welcome to attend any 1Voice Branch event.

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1Voice 1Day 2017

October is AAC Awareness Month

A group of 44 1Voice members enjoyed a fun-packed day at Leeds University on Sunday 10 September. This was the fourth year the event has been held, taking place prior to the start of the Communication Matters (CM) Conference. The theme of the day mirrored the CM theme of ‘Around The World’. AAC Users had the opportunity to engage in a Lego based activity and to create their very own Travel Dream Books. Parents and carers got the chance to share stories of travelling and an opportunity to discuss the practical and funding issues around travelling with Personal Assistants. Trustee, Helen Quiller, presented her journal of her recent trip to New York. After lunch, we joined in with the CM Tea and Games from Around the World which was really good fun and we would like to say a big thank you to all the CM Trustees and volunteers for making us feel so welcome. We ended the day with a World Quiz and took the time to remember Alan Martin, a former 1Voice Member, through the sharing of one of his films ‘The Chair is not me’. Jemima Hughes gave a short speech having won the CM Alan Martin Award in 2016. It was fun to watch the reactions of some of the older 1Voice Members who got to see themselves as children in the Banana Pizza film. Those who could stay got to see Trustee, Helen Dixon be awarded with the Jamie Munro Inspiration prize by CM. All in all, a great day was enjoyed by old friends and new. We look forward to next year.

1Voice at CM The Winner is… Congratulations to Trustee, Helen Dixon who was the winner of the inaugural Communi-cation Matters Jamie Munro Inspiration Award. Helen had been

nominated by a parent for her tireless work over the years in working with children who use AAC, including running the thriving 1Voice Lakes & Bay Branch. Well done Helen.

Subscribe to our Channel at 1voicemovies. Keep a look out for new content coming soon.

A team of 1Voice trustees spoke about 1Voice at the Communication Matters Conference. They told the audience how 1Voice began as and has remained a member-led organisation, run by parents, profes-sionals and AAC users. They explained how our role models help young AAC users and their families, and discussed the importance of our regional branches alongside our better-know national events. The presentation was received well and a few people asked about setting up local events in their areas.

SAVE THE DATE: 1VOICE 1DAY 2018, 9 SEPTEMBER 2018, UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

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Member News Eight year old Charlotte Seth was a highly commended finalist in the Young Person of the Year category at the Shine A Light Awards 2016/17. The awards celebrate innovative work and excellent practice in supporting children and young people’s communication development. Charlotte’s dedication to improving her own communication disabilities has led her to become a keynote speaker at three regional confer-ences in the past year. She has given presentations on the subjects of total communication, what people can do to support communication for AAC users and her experiences with using AAC in the community.

Since the Shine A Light Awards, Charlotte has been very busy. She made the front page of her local newspaper and recorded an interview for Stray FM. Charlotte was excited to be invited to join the CBeebies Swashbuckle team for a day. You can see Charlotte having fun in the Swashbuckle Pirate Party Kit on the CBeebies website.

Charlotte was also featured on BBC Look North in April in a piece about her setting up her business, Charlotte’s Lovely Things. It was filmed in her Art Studio in the garden where she makes fused glass

artworks. Currently, Charlotte is planning her first workshops teaching basic glass pen-dants / suncatchers or Christmas ornaments for some of her fellow home educated friends. She is also looking to deliver the same workshops to Space 2 Create in Kendal, a charity which works with people with mental health difficulties. Well done Charlotte!

October is AAC Awareness Month

Jemima Hughes - Film Maker In 2016, Communication Matters awarded Jemima Hughes the Alan Martin Award for contribution to the arts by an AAC user, in recognition of her film making. Jemima is a deaf and disabled AAC user who uses Grid 3 computer control for switch us-ers to edit her films. The themes of her films are varied. Some present disability related issues, while others celebrate disabled people’s lives and creativity, and some are not about disability at all. Jemima has been making films for over ten years. Her 2016 Arts Council funded animation, Imagina-tion, was made for Channel 4 Random Acts. Imagination has been screened at numerous film festivals including at: a Disability Film Festival in Poland, Encounters Short Film Festival in Bristol, Anima Syros on the Greek Island of Syros and Canterbury Anifest. It has also been screened in France, South Africa and Folkestone. Imagination is going to the Cardiff International Film Festival at the end of October. Jemima was invited to two schools for deaf and disabled students in Newcastle to tell them about her film making using assistive technology and she gave a more detailed presentation at the 2017 Communication Matters Conference in Leeds. You can view Jemima’s film Imagination using the following link: http://bit.ly/RA-Imagination

Mentoring Project

By Gregor Gilmour, 1Voice Trustee

Back in May 2017, six young people from all over the North West, came together to do the Men-toring Project. The project was run by Verity El-liot, from Creativity in Practice Ltd, which is a small independent training group. The project was funded by Awards for All and with help from Com-munication Matters. The project took place at Gorton Monastery in Manchester. The course entailed three units, which included the role of the mentor, preparing for the role of a mentor and demonstrating men-toring skills and techniques. We completed the course by doing written work and practical and group discussion. We met every Wednesday for eight weeks. We all passed and now have a Level 2 in Mentoring Qualification. Myself and Nadia were already working in a mentoring role but it has helped our understanding of how to mentor professionally. Two more of the AAC users on the course are now in paid employment as mentors because of the course. Hopefully they will do the course again next year. Congratulations to 1Voice members Gregor, Nadia and Jessica and the three other young people who achieved their Level 2 in Mentoring Qualification.

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Member Survey Results

October is AAC Awareness Month

Thank you to everyone who completed our survey. We had a total of 30 responses to our survey asking what members wanted from 1Voice. Below we have summarised the weighted average score out of 5 for the key questions and included some quotes from members about what they would like 1Voice to focus on over the next few years and what they value about being a 1Voice member.

How important is the 1Voice National Residential Weekend. 3.8/5 How important are 1Voice local events? 4.2/5 How important is the newsletter? 4/5 How important to you is having access to a 1Voice Role Model? 4/5

The trustees are pleased that the future plans for 1Voice are in line with what our members value and are busy working on plans to continue the annual national weekend, helping local volunteers set up more local events and organising role model training to expand our role model programme.

“Continue building local hubs and reaching out to new fami-lies.”

“More of what you are doing.”

“The sense of family and belonging to a unique group where everyone understands the challenges AAC presents...you don’t feel alone.”

“Seeing what can be achieved with AAC gives us inspiration and aspirations for our child.”

“It is a wonderful way of supporting what can be a very isolating disability.”

“It is the place where we most belong. We get the best advice from role models and parents who have been there already.”

We are keen for our members to ‘follow’ us on Pinterest but several people are saying “I’ve heard of it but I don’t know what it is!” So we thought we would try to explain… Pinterest is a type of social media, you create an account with a name and password and then can create your own ‘pinboards’ of ideas that interest you, for example recipes, hairstyles, interior design. You can search for what you are looking for and it will find similar things that other people have saved (called ‘pinned’) on their pinboard. People often use this to find out more about their hobbies, however it can also be very use-ful for finding resources about communication, AAC and education. For example you could search for “core vocabu-lary AAC”, “communication board” or “early lit-eracy activities” and it would show you a range of ideas that other people have saved about this topic. To make it quicker, if you search ‘1voiceaac’ we have already saved topics that you might be interested in such as ‘AAC in the school envi-ronment’, ‘starting to use AAC’, ‘activities and play ideas’ and ‘literacy’, we will continue to add more topics/pinboards so create an account and keep checking.

There’s still time to catch a Communications Matter (CM) Roadshow this year. These are product demonstration days sup-ported by and presented by CM’s commercial members from the

UK’s leading suppliers of communication aids, equipment, software and symbol systems. Cardiff—22 November 2017 Ashford—29 November 2017 For further information and to book a place visit the CM website at: http://www.communicationmatters.org.uk/page/road-shows

Want a 1Voice t-shirt, hoodie or badge? 1Voice t-shirts, polos and hoodies can be or-dered directly from Inch Embroidery. 1Voice benefits from 10% of all sales. Clothing is avail-able in a variety of colours for both children and adults. To place your order go to http://bit.ly/InchEmb.

Speak Out

An Interview with….. In our regular feature we aim to interview one of our Members. This time it is Kate Caryer, a 1Voice Branch Co-ordinator. How old are you? 33

Where do you live? North London

How do you communicate? Communication Aid Accent 1 2, 000,

letterboards, signing, interpretive dance.

What’s your favourite film or TV show? Minions movie and

Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Who is your celebrity crush? Robert Webb (and his brilliant book).

Who inspires you? Jemima Hughes and her film-making (Follow on Facebook

@pinkwheelchairfilms).

What was your proudest moment? Performing ‘Speechless the Musical’ at Leeds Communication

Matters Conference.

Where is your favourite place in the world? Barcelona.

What would you like to achieve in the next 5 years? Go to University/College again.

What’s your favourite song? Mr Blue Sky (there is some synthesised speech).

What are your hobbies? Drama, script writing, going to the pub, exploring London (I would do the

London Taxi Drivers’ Test, ‘The Knowledge’, if I could drive!).

What is your worst habit? Being really lazy.

If you could have any superpower what would it be? Teleporting.

What is your favourite 1voice memory? Seeing Alan Martin dressed as a

Pantomime Dame!! And meeting the whole gang of tiny kids for the first time and

seeing them grow up.

What does 1Voice mean to you? Helping young disabled people to find their voice.

October is AAC Awareness Month

The Unspoken Project CIC is embarking on its most ambitious project yet. A presentation on

how to talk with an AAC peep (or just another human being) at the ISAAC (International Socie-

ty for Augmentative and Alternative Communication) Conference in 2018. We think AAC users

should be heard and it is our aim to create better representation of AAC, break down stereo-

types and improve communication access worldwide. We are hoping to make a tongue in cheek video entitled

“How not to talk with an AAC user” and feel adding humour to a serious subject is powerful. If you would

like to join us on this adventure, there are a few ways you can do this.

Attend a fundraising event

Fill in a questionnaire about voice at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/

r/7THLKJ3.

If you would be interested in being involved with this, please contact us at kate.unspoken@gmail.com

Of course, if you’re feeling generous you can always just give some money. If you’d like to donate,

please visit http://bit.ly/Unspoken2018 and please share with your friends and family. Love Kate x

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History of 1Voice

October is AAC Awareness Month

Membership of 1Voice continues to grow and we currently have over 500 mem-bers. However, many of our newer members may not be aware of how 1Voice came to be. Katie Clarke, 1Voice co-founder recalls the early days. Back in September 1997 I went along to my first Communication Matters con-ference. My daughter Nadia was just 5 years old and I wanted to learn as much as possible to support her with her communication system. One of the workshops I attended was delivered by Tamsin Crothers, a Speech and Lan-guage Therapist, who shared her experiences of going to Camp Chatterbox, a summer camp in the USA. Her presentation showed how the camp brought young AAC users together from across the country during the summer holi-

days for activities and an AAC learning experience for all the family. We got together after the workshop and both agreed that there was a definite need to do something similar in this country. 1Voice was officially born in the back of my large wheelchair friendly van. In 2000 we held our first weekend at a hotel in Blackpool. The people that make a real difference were our team of motivators—our Role Models who have been, and always will be, the foundations of 1Voice. These not only inspired the younger users to become good at using their aids and to aim for being role models themselves, but also supported parents to think differently and more positively about disability and to have aspirations and dreams for their young people. 1Voice went from strength to strength, winning awards, such as the Guardian Charity Awards for the 2006 Teenage Project. We became involved in many other projects, collaborating with Council for Disabled Children, Scope, Communication Trust, Communication Consortium, Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and presenting at Communication Matters Conference. 1Voice Lakes and Bay had been a group for a long time but by 2008 there was interest from other regions who wanted to set up their own group to bring together families locally. In 2012 it was the end of an era when founders Katie and Tamsin stepped down as Trustees of 1Voice. Current Trustees work hard to carry on the fantastic work started back in 1997 and look forward to planning 20 year celebrations in the next couple of years! Katie Clarke 1Voice membership continues to grow and there is increasing interest in establishing more local branches. In 2017, 1Voice were recognised as a Highly Commended Finalist in AAC Award Category at the Shine a Light awards 2016/17. The Awards is a national awards scheme that celebrates innovative work and excellent practice in supporting children and young people's communication development.

Co-founders, Katie and Tamsin

Did you know that you can raise funds for us when you shop online? Give as you Live allows you to shop at over 4,100 participating retailers and turns the commission into free funds for 1Voice. It doesn’t cost you a penny. To date 1Voice has received £127.20 from Give as you Live with only a handful of active supporters. We would love to get more of our members to sign up. It is an easy way to support the work that we do in bringing AAC users together. To sign up and find out more, visit: https://www.giveasyoulive.com/join/1voice-ct.

Do you shop online?

1Voice, The Apex, 2 Sheriffs Orchard, Coventry CV1 3PP. Phone: 07943 618525 Email: info@1voice.info

Contact :

Thank You

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Danny’s Challenge There is still time to donate to Danny’s fundraising page. Danny set himself the challenge of com-pleting the York 10 mile race to raise funds for 1Voice after at-tending the National Residential Weekend in July with his friend Mary, a communication aid user. Danny found the event really in-

spiring and saw first hand what a ‘brilliant’ charity 1Voice is. You can visit his fundraising page at: http://bit.ly/DannyWells. Thank You Danny!

1Voice relies entirely on voluntary donations and receives no government funding. Funds raised help us to put on events including the National Residential Weekend; to support our role models and volunteers; and to continue to expand our branch network.

Kate’s Challenge All our Trustees work hard to support our members. However, Kate McCallum deserves a special mention. On the 1 January she set herself the challenge of walking a total of 999 miles and swimming 21 miles, the distance of Morecambe to Monaco, to raise funds for 1Voice! Kate reached

the finish line on the dance floor at our na-tional residential weekend at the end of July! To make a donation visit her fundrais-ing page http://bit.ly/swimwalkchallenge. Thank you Kate!

October is AAC Awareness Month

Find us at 1VoiceCT.

Follow us on Twitter @1VoiceAAC.

A big Thank You to Nick Allen from Banbury Postiche Limited whose annual Paulo Cup Memorial Golf Day raised £200. The money was donated to 1Voice at the request of one of our members due to all the support 1Voice has given them over the years.

We want to say a big Thank You to our regular monthly donors. Your contribution really makes a difference. If you are interested in signing up to make a regular dona-tion to help us continue to provide networking and sup-port for users of alternative communication, you can do so easily at https://1voice.charitycheckout.co.uk/#!/. Every donation really makes a difference.

1voiceaac

Are you running the 2018 Virgin London Marathon?

Visit the Virgin Money Giving website and set up a fundraising page by the end of November 2017 to be in with a chance of

winning a VIP up-grade and a massive £1,000 donation to your chosen charity.

Team 1Voice—Challenge 2018

To continue to hold the national event and to develop our local branch and role model programme we rely on the generosity of our donors and also our dedicated team of volunteers. 1Voice has set itself the challenge to raise £35,000 in 2018 to help it continue its unique and vital work. We are inviting 1Voice supporters to get creative and to pledge to do something amazing in 2018. Walk, swim, ride, sky-dive, canoe or crawl! If being physically active is not your thing then how about holding a cake sale or other sponsored or fundraising event. Let us know what you are planning to do. Your ideas may inspire others to do the same. If you need help setting up a fundraising page or would like sponsor forms, please get in touch with Jo at info@1voice.info.

Last year, our Christmas Card campaign raised al-most £350. Instead of buying and sending cards, people chose to share our Christmas message and make a donation to 1Voice. We will once again be sharing our Christmas message and ask you to consider making a donation instead of sending cards. Keep an eye on our social media and your inbox for this year’s Christmas mes-sage.