On September 14th, 1Voice held our

first 1Voice-1Day event prior to the

Communication Matters Annual Con-

ference in Leeds. It was nice to see

several faces from the past there,

and some new ones. It was especial-

ly nice to welcome Kate McCallum to

the event as our new co-opted Trus-

tee.

We started the event off with a nice

relaxed buffet lunch, where there was

much chatting and laughing between

old and new friends. We split into two

groups of younger and older children

and AAC Users. Our newest volun-

teers, Kate, Sally and Kelly, set up an

activity for the younger attendees,

which aimed to encourage them to

talk about their dreams and things

that they would like to do in the fu-

ture. The children all enjoyed this

activity and came up with lots of fan-

tastic ideas and projects for the fu-

ture. Some said that they would like

to go on holiday in the sunshine, oth-

ers talked about changing schools

and moving onto college and eventu-

ally living independently.

I was with the older group of teenag-

ers where lots of old friends were

excited to be reunited. We felt it was

important to allow them the time to

talk and see each other again. There

was some discussion about the dif-

ferent stages of transition and

change that people had experienced

or were currently going through. This

was a very informal, relaxed session,

where friends could just chat happily

amongst themselves, with lots of

laughter and many happy memories

Some of us joined the parents for a

fantastic presentation by Gregor Gil-

mour, who talked with humour and

insight about his communication jour-

ney.

At the end of the event Nadia Clarke

was presented with the Alan Martin

Inspiration Award, in recognition of

her inspiring work as a role model

and disability rights campaigner. Na-

dia was very excited about receiving

this award, and gave an emotional

speech about how Alan had inspired

her with his independence, humour

and creativity.

The feedback about the event was all

very positive. People enjoyed the day

a lot, and it is something we hope to

repeat in future. Some of us stayed

on for the Communication Matters

conference; it was my first time at-

tending, and a fantastic experience—

but that is for another article.

Speak Out 1Voice—1Day by Helen Quiller

Dates for Your Diary

Jan 10 1V Lancs

Bowling for 18+

Jan 31 AGM and NBM

Manchester

May 15 1Voice National

Weekend—

Derbyshire

Sept 13 1Voice-1Day

Leeds

Please check the 1Voice web-

site Events section for more

details.

www.1voice.info/events

1Vo i ce -

Commun i ca t i ng

Together

Volume 4, Issue 2

December 2014

A world where the

voice of every child

and adult is listened

to and heard, however

they communicate

Speak Out Page 2

Branch News 1V Beds/Herts/Bucks—Pizza Party

For our second meeting, we decided on having a pizza party at a local res-taurant. We welcomed two new young people to the group, who had never

been to a 1Voice gathering before. Once our greetings were done and everyone found a spot to sit, our AAC users ordered their own items. After all was con-sumed, we table-hopped to talk to each other. Thanks to the restaurant staff who helped make this a success.

1V Bridging the Gap—with

Bridge College

1Voice teamed up with Bridge College, Manchester in November, for an afternoon of networking and support. As well as providing yummy refreshments, volunteers and Bridge staff led us through a variety of activities. We had presentations by 1Voice Role Models, an AAC communication group and a Parent/Carer workshop. All concluded with a Sing and Sign session. Great fun.

1V Lakes & Bay The annual Steamer and Lunch trip took place in October. Everyone had a good time despite the weather - as always Win-

dermere Lake Cruises were brilliant and lunch at The Village Inn was good too!

1V Lancs History was in the making when the planning event for the new Lancashire branch took place at the end of October. Adults who were children when 1Voice was created, and are currently 1Voice Role Models are forming their own branch. They have already set the next two events -See our Events on Page 1

1V NorthEast—Washington Wetlands

In September 1V NE visited the Washing-ton Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.

Everyone enjoyed lunch and an after-noon stroll around the accessible complex.

1V NE has also been busy fundraising, which we look forward to reporting on soon.

1V SouthEast—Halloween Hullabaloo.

We had a horrifically good day in Octo-ber to celebrate the festival of all things terrifying. 22 really brave souls came

through the spooky tunnel to face the three witches known as Katie, Mary and Midge! After investigating the grizzly feely boxes, they told spine-chilling horror stories using many forms of AAC. A

quidditch match was played without a bit of cheating (actually quite a lot of cheating occurred!). We tricked or treated each other. Then everyone kicked Piedro’s head in! Piedro was a skull piñata.

Brigit and the National Citizenship Award

Page 3 Volume 4, Issue 2

Are you good at art, like to design? Using our most recent national logo, can you design a car/wheelchair sticker? The circu-lar sticker will be 4 inches/100mm in diameter. Send your entries to Julie by 15 January. The winner will be chosen at our company AGM on 31 January.

Over the last few months Brigit Hob-son has been participating in the National Citizen Service, a scheme open to all 16 and 17 year olds which enables them to take part in social action projects and develop skills for work and life. Over a week-end at half term she participated in a residential trip to Allendale in North-umberland with 60 other young peo-ple. Here she got up to all sorts of shenanigans, including extreme hide and seek, tree climbing….. During the rest of half term, along with the

Competition Time!

other fourteen members of her group she decided on a social action project. The team decided to raise awareness and funds for 1Voice NorthEast. They adopted a two pronged attack – a bake sale in local churches and then a Sing Off. Both were a roaring success. The Sing off attracted ten local acts, was attend-ed by well over 100 people and a great time was had by all. Over £500 was raised for 1Voice North-East and countless more people are now aware of 1Voice and AAC!

Kate McCallum has lived and breathed AAC most of her life, professionally for the past 15 years, working in a range of settings: an assessment centre, an SEN school, for a major AAC supplier, and in her day job as an AAC Technician. Most recently she co-wrote CommuniKate; the first, open, transferable, symbol based, page set. Kate took a break from being a trustee of 1Voice -Communicating Together in 2008, in order to complete her degree and qualify as an Occupational Therapist. During the time it took to do the degree part time, she had two wonderful children. Her journey into AAC began when she was much younger. She was 5 when her brother was born with complex special needs. Growing up Kate wished, that one day her brother would speak. At age 17 he got his first com-munication aid. It changed their lives forever for the better because he finally had a voice everyone could under-stand. We are delighted she is back as a trustee of 1Voice and excited about the future of the charity.

Trustee Returns!

1Voice—Communicating Together is a Charity

Registered in England and Wales—No 1141886..

In 2010 it became a Company Limited by Guar-

antee.—Company No. 07480160.

The Apex

2 Sheriffs Orchard

Coventry CV1 3PP

Phone: 07943 618525

E-mail: info@1voice.info Web: www.1voice.info

Facebook: 1VoiceCT Twitter: 1VoiceAAC

1Vo i ce - Commun i ca t i ng Together

1Voice – Communicating Together does not endorse or recommend any particular equipment or service.

Individuals should take professional advice in relation to their needs.

The Trustees have been brain-storming ways to fundraise for our national event next year. A few ideas of selling items has

come to the surface. We are thinking about mugs. Of course, this poses a possible storage problem for Julie, so she would like to think you are all desperate for a new tea/coffee mug very soon!

Fundraising Ideas

Symbol Reader’s Corner

TalkaboutAAC is a new online forum, which is being de-veloped by ACE Centre, Communication Matters and 1Voice, as part of a DfE funded project. TalkaboutAAC is currently being piloted by volunteers

and will launch fully in January 2015. It will be your space to discuss and share information with others and will provide a platform to get your voices heard by decision makers. The fo-rum will be managed jointly by Communication Matters and 1Voice. TalkaboutAAC does not replace the Communication Matters AAC forum on GoogleGroups but will complement it by serving a slightly different purpose; bringing together the views and experiences of AAC users and families. If anyone is interested in occasional work as an administrator of the fo-rum, please get in touch with us for further information. Want to join the forum? You can pre-register your interest now by sending an email with “pre-registration” in the subject line, to: admin@talkaboutaac.org 1Voice and Communication Matters members will receive more information closer to the time of the forum launch.

TalkaboutAAC

Speak Out Page 4