There are many potential routes for stammerers to tame their stammer. There is no cure for stammering, but many stammers have found relief in either controlling their stammer or discovering a way to feel comfortable stammering.
The charity Empowering Voices offers a potential path to fear-free speech using a breathing technique, a proven speech pattern, and desensitisation techniques. This technique has been around for decades, and thousands of stammerers have benefited, many of whom speak in a calm and controlled manner without fear.
Empowering Voices is new; we started holding courses and supporting stammerers in 2024. However, the trustees, course leaders, and mentors have helped thousands of stammerers control their speech in other beat-stammering courses over several decades. We set up Empowering Voices because we believe that help for stammerers should be available as inexpensively as possible, and the best way to deliver this is through a charity. Other organisations that offer a similar approach do not have charitable status.
We have many people involved with running our courses and support network, and many more asking what it’s like to be part of Empowering Voices. These are some of the things we are proud of:
Charitable status
We are registered with the Charity Commission (1207800). This means we don’t pay taxes the same way as a business. We also receive Gift Aid from the HMRC, so every donation is boosted by 20%! Similar courses which aren’t charities pay tax and don’t receive gift aid.
We receive free help from large digital companies like Microsoft, Google, Paypal and Canva. If we aren’t paying for these services, members of Empowering Voices aren’t paying either.
Companies like working with charities; we receive preferential rates for course venue hire.
No one gets paid, and no director dividends. Everyone who works for Empowering Voices is a volunteer.
Course structure
We hold courses in professional training facilities, such as colleges and community business centres, over three days. The “formal” part of the course lasts around eight hours a day, although the time before and after the course is just as important. Non-classroom time can be spent with our mentors practising your newfound technique in real-world situations. After three days with Empowering Voices, someone new to our approach will have a firm grasp of our technique.
We don’t have Course Directors or business owners. We have course and session leaders; each person has learned to control their stammer using our technique. This fosters our brilliant community feel. A course in 2024 had eight different session leaders. The course leader provides a structure and rhythm like a conductor. However, the session leaders are the Empowering Voices soloists who provide the energy and inject infectious enthusiasm into each part of our course.
We have lots of breaks in an informal atmosphere; you shouldn’t get burnt out, and course breaks are a great opportunity to practice what you have just learned. We don’t run a boot camp; most people take on new ideas best when they are relaxed and calm rather than pressurised and having their “performance” measured.
Support
Lots of stammerers have had the experience of feeling the benefit of a speech course or therapy for it to fade and eventually vanish. At Empowering Voices, we believe the support you will receive after our course is as important as the course itself. Your path to fear-free speech may have bumps along the way, but by making support available for free, the trend line to clear and calm speech can remain positive.
The support we offer includes:
Regular online support group meetings
Voice and video one-to-one support calls via the Support Directory
Facebook Support Group
WhatsApp Support Group
Free attendance at any subsequent course
Fun events such as online quizzes
Philosophy
We are a community of stammerers who have discovered something that works well to control a stammer.
All our volunteers give up their time free of charge to help other stammerers.
Empowering Voices is truly OURS (the stammering community) rather than a business watching return on investment.
We offer lots of opportunities for personal development. Help run a session, find new venues, join a support group, develop and maintain our digital presence, promote our great charity, join a committee, or become a trustee. This is YOUR charity and a great opportunity to help people “just like you”.
Everyone’s input is valued. We encourage feedback, which can be anonymous, to make Empowering Voices better.
We hold our courses in easily accessible locations around the UK. We check all training venues, hotels, and restaurants to ensure the facilities are excellent and that the staff is sensitive to the needs of a stammering clientele.
Empowering Voices is a smart choice if you want to tame your stammer. Try us and discover an opportunity to say what you want, when and how you want, ultimately without fear.
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