AAC Awareness: 25 Voices To mark the 25th anniversary of 1Voice, we’re delighted to share the voices of our different members of the 1Voice Community. As AAC Awareness Month draws to a close, we are delighted that our 25th voice is that of 1Voice co-founder and parent, Katie Clarke. Without Katie, the charity would not exist, thank you Katie and family! “I’m Katie Clarke of West Yorkshire, co-founder, alongside Tamsin Crothers, of 1Voice – Communicating together. We’re delighted that it’s the 25th anniversary . I’m going to give you a little bit of background to how I first got involved. I’d attended a big conference called Communication Matters when my daughter was young. This was 27 years ago and wanted to learn as much as I could that would help me support her on her AAC journey. At the conference I listened to a fantastic presentation about Camp Chatterbox – a place in America where they brought together young disabled people who used communication aids together with their families. The presenter was Tamsin and after the session I went up to her and said what a great presentation it was and that it really would be so helpful to have a similar organisation based here in England. I invited her for a drink in the bar later that evening. And after, was it one drink or was it two drinks or was it three, 1Voice was born. We both decided it was a great idea and the next step was to bring together some interested people with passion and commitment to help us actually set up the organisation. So for many months we met regularly, in a pub, there’s a bit of a theme there, half way between where Tamsin lived in Wigan and where I live and those people were fantastic. Everybody who came together worked really hard to get 1Voice off the ground, to get ourselves registered as a charity and to start fundraising. Ever since then 1Voice has blossomed. And we brought together hundreds and hundreds of people over the years at different venues that are inclusive and accessible places. The young people have won awards over the years for some of the many projects that we’ve won and I’m delighted that 1Voice continues to thrive and grow and that young disabled people want to grow up to be the role models of the future. #AACAwared 2025 (fb)

AAC Awareness: 25 Voices To mark the 25th anniversary of 1Voice, we’re delighted to share the voices of our different members of the 1Voice Community. As AAC Awareness Month draws to a close, we are delighted that our 24th voice is that of 1Voice co-founder and speech and language therapist, Tamsin Crothers. Without Tamsin, the charity would not exist, thank you Tamsin! “My names Tamsin. I’m a speech and language therapist aand one of the co-founders of 1Voice – Communicating Together. I went to Camp Chatterbox in 1996 which is a week long camp in America for children and families learning to use communication aids. And while I was there, I was struck by the importance of the family in learning to use the aid and also the role models who inspired the families and gave people really something to aim for. Not just the children but also the parents and their expectations. So when I came back we started to do some day groups at the school I was working at Mere Oaks and these went down really well. The children made lots of progress, families knew how to support their communication at home and eventually we didn’t and eventually we didn’t need to run the events any more because the parents had created such a network between themselves. I did a presentation at Communication Matters, which is the UK Branch of the International Society for Alternative and Augmentative Communication and Katie Clarke came up to me and said we need something like this in Halifax, so we decided to start small and run a residential weekend for people across the UK to come, get together, meet other people, meet role models and what was unique I think at the time was that we wanted the organisation to be led by people using AAC, adult role models and professionals and families so that it really was a team approach and everybody was learning from everybody else. The first weekend was very well-received. Families were doing workshops and saying ‘this is a must, we have never met other people in the same situation as ourselves, its so good to be somewhere where we don’t have to explain ourselves and where everybody knows how to speak to our child, and the role models were really inspirational and gave families something to take away and aim for. What’s amazing is that 1Voice has carried on running for 25 years and I think that everybody is so amazing to have made that happen. Some of those first children that came to the first residential event are now adults and role models in their own right. We’ve got people who have been to university, we’ve got a DJ, dancers, film makers, researchers, international sports people and people that have fabulous circles of friends and family, everybody communicating to their potential and with the people they want to talk to. And for me, I’m grateful to 1Voice for the generous families and role models that have shared their lives with me and showed me the things I needed to aim for as a professional in supporting families. And they’ve been so generous with their time and ideas. So Happy Anniversary 1Voice. Happy Anniversary to everybody and here’s to another 25 years! (fb)