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Name Change for the Charity
After more than twenty years as ‘The Association for Research into Stammering in Childhood’ we have changed our name to ‘Action for Stammering Children’. This was prompted in part by a review of our strategy and plans for the next three years but more significantly, feedback suggested that this new name is easier to say, easier to understand and it more appropriately encompasses our core purpose.
Our mission is to increase the availability of specialist services for children and young people so that they are able to meet the challenges created by their stammer. Children who stammer can experience incredibly powerful feelings of sadness, loneliness, confusion, embarrassment and frustration. A stammer can often leave a child struggling to make friends, not take part in lessons and underperform at school. A stammer can have a devastating impact on a child’s confidence and their ability to do all the normal things that other children take for granted. It can often result in a child being isolated, teased and bullied.
Some 5% of pre-school and 1.2% of school age children stammer, resulting in over 100,000 children in the UK who would benefit from specialist help and support. This expertise is not widely available and as a result over 75% of people who require help are not getting it. For a child or young person the result can be truly devastating.
As Action for Stammering Children, our change of name does not in any way change the charity’s legal identity, any aspects of our corporate governance or the basis upon which all funds are held or applied. Our mission stays the same, as does our medium term focus; working with The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children in London and the Stammering Support Centre in Leeds, to ensure more children, young people and their families are able to access specialist help and support.
In these challenging economic times, we are completely dependent on your generosity to fund our work. We have some incredible supporters, a number of whom have helped us for many years – we are extremely grateful to you all. If you would like to join this group and support our work please take a few minutes to look at the Donate section of this website. Whether you are a Charitable Trust, a company or an individual, your help is urgently needed and would be hugely appreciated. It is only through your support that we can continue to ensure more children and young people access the specialist help that can change their lives, forever.
With thanks
Patrick Tonks, Chief Executive. Action for Stammering Children
Stammering Support Centre on Daybreak
Please click here to view Thomas, aged 7 years, being interviewed along with BSA's Chief Executive, Norbert Lieckfeldt . Thomas has been receiving speech therapy at the Stammering Support Centre in Leeds.
Thomas with The Rt Hon John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons and The Rt Hon Ed Balls MP, at the opening of the Stammering Support Centre in Leeds
Frances and Diana
On December 23rd the Michael Palin Centre will say good bye to two very special people. Frances Cook and Diana de Grunwald are retiring, after many years of faithful service.
Frances has worked in the field of stammering for many years and has been part of the specialist service here in London since the early 1980’s. When the Association for Research into Stammering in Childhood was set up in 1984 she was asked to be a member of the charity and she has worked at the Michael Palin Centre from the beginning. When Lena Rustin retired in 1993 Frances became the manager of the Centre and has gradually built up the team of specialist therapists, teaching mentoring and encouraging them with her wisdom and experience. Frances also nurtured and developed the wide range of teaching programmes and established the research programme all of which have contributed to the Centre’s current status as an internationally renowned centre of excellence. Frances' exceptional skills have gained her recognition from the UK’s professional body, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists who awarded her a fellowship, and from the International Fluency Association, who gave her the prestigious award of Clinician of Distinction. Frances has led the team at the Centre with a clear vision, determination, huge generosity, a warm heart , a light touch and her wonderful sense of humour. She will be greatly missed by the Board of Trustees, by her NHS colleagues, by the children and families who attend the Centre, but most of all by her team of therapists whose lives have been so profoundly influenced by Frances.
Diana first became involved in the Centre as a parent of children who stammer. Her charming manner and calm efficiency were soon spotted by Lena Rustin, who persuaded Diana to help out in the office and thus she became the first employee of the charity in 1991. Diana developed this role into expert fundraiser, events organiser and office manager. She has overseen two opening parties, the launch of the charity’s appeal at Clarence House, two receptions at Downing Street and several Evenings with Michael Palin. She has nurtured relationships with our funders, who were all the more generous because of Diana. But her most special quality has been her gentle, compassionate and endlessly patient manner on the telephone with the hundreds of anxious parents who didn’t know where to turn. In Diana they found a safe haven of gentle understanding, sound advice and a feeling that they had found somewhere they would be in safe hands. We all owe her so much and we will miss her so much.
The Kid's Speech - where are they now?
Here is an update from some of the families who appeared in the programme....
William says:
"Since I have been on the two week intensive course at the Michael Palin Centre alot of things have changed.
Firstly, I have joined a new football team and started a new year at secondary school (year 8). Speech-wise, my speech has been a lot better, I slow down, stammer less and I am able to give presentations in class! The techniques I have learnt have definitely helped me and I don't feel as nervous when having to speak in front of people. The speech and language therapists have helped me fantastically throughout.
Many people in my year have come up to me saying 'I didnt know you had a stammer' or 'I saw you on t.v !'
I feel happier and more confident."
Reggie says:
"Since I have been on the intensive course at the Michael Palin Centre I have done lots of interesting things.
In July I went away with my primary school to Hayling Island in Hampshire and we did loads of fun activities such as Abseiling, Climbing, Raft building, Archery and a Disco. I think that you quite get that I enjoyed myself very much! A week after that a big event happened in my life, I had my final day at primary school!
Children's Award Nominees
My Life: Stammer School, a documentary which followed a group of children on a two week therapy course at the Michael Palin Centre, has been nominated for the 2011 British Academy Children's Award in the factual category. Please click here to see more.
Kid's Speech
An exciting new documentary about young people who stammer and their families was shown on 18th October on BBC1. The programme is called The Kid's Speech and featured several children who attended a two week therapy course at the Michael Palin Centre.
Interview with Estates Gazette
Michael Palin and Ed Balls speak to Estates Gazette at the opening of the new Michael Palin Centre on Tuesday 20th September 2011. Click here to watch their interview.
Opening of the New Michael Palin Centre
The Trustees of ARSC and the staff at the Michael Palin Centre were joined by many funders and supporters in celebration of the opening of the newly refurbished Centre at13-15 Pine Street, adjacent to our old premises at Finsbury Health Centre.
The purchase of the building was funded by a number of significant charitable donations. These included a personal donation from Jane Fraser and Joe Fulcher, President and Vice President of the Stuttering Foundation in theUS, who came over for the party. Further major donations were made by LandAid, the Monument Trust and the Egremont Charitable Trust. The refurbishment was funded by a grant from the previous government with the support of the Rt Hon Ed Balls MP.
Lord Egremont spoke on behalf of the Trustees, illustrating with great passion his memories of being a youngster with a stammer and his commitment to the work of the specialist therapists at the Centre
Michael Palin spoke very personally of his father’s stammer and the difference it would have made if specialist therapy had been available for him all those years ago. We were all so proud to hear him say that the Centre is `the best cause he has ever supported`.
Rt Hon Ed Balls also spoke with great sincerity of the challenge of being a senior politician with a stammer and the impact of seeing the young people working with therapists at the Centre to overcome their difficulties.
Amongst other guests were Travers Reid, Life President and co-founder, with the late Lena Rustin, of ARSC; Gerald and Gail Ronson who have generously supported ARSC for many years; Emily Thornberry, MP for Islington South & Finsbury; representatives from NHS Islington (now Whittington Health) who have worked in partnership with ARSC over many years; from the British Stammering Association Norbert Lieckfeldt and Leys Geddes; together with other long-term funders, speech and language therapy colleagues, the architect, builders, surveyors and many others whose work have contributed to the restoration of the building.
We are grateful to all those whose support has helped us achieve so much.
Our special thanks to William Norris & Company for their very generous support in providing our guests with the most delicious refreshments, and to Pod Flowers Ltd for their wonderful floral display.
After such celebrations, the new Michael Palin Centre is well and truly open!
Hello Event
On Wednesday 28th September we held a drop-in session from 11.30am-1.30pm for parents, professionals and education staff, to raise awareness about local services for children with speech, language and communication needs (including stammering). Please see attached flyer for more information
ARSC delighted with Help A Capital Child Award
95.8 Capital FM’s charity, Help a Capital Child has awarded ARSC (The Association for Research into Stammering in Childhood) a grant of £46,559 to help its work with youngsters who stammer at The Michael Palin Centre in Islington.
The grant has been used to equip a group therapy room so that children and young people who stammer have the latest supporting technology to allow them to get the most out of their time at the Centre.
On 27th July 2011 Margherita Taylor, 95.8 Capital FM presenter and Help a Capital Child Patron, visited the newly refurbished Michael Palin Centre. She officially opened the ‘Help a Capital Child Group Therapy Room’ and chatted to the 16 teenagers who were on the first course in the brand new facility.
The Group Therapy Room will host intensive therapy courses for teenagers and younger children who stammer. These programmes are run by specilaist therapists and are specifically designed to help children and young people who stammer develop their communication skills, increase their self-confidence and meet others who share similar experiences.
ARSC Chairman, Bryan Dutton was delighted with the award and said:
"With the Help a Capital Child grant, for the first time we can fully equip a Group Therapy Suite so that the children have everything they need to workwith our specialists to improve their confidence and ability to manage their stammer.
Thank you, Capital, for your generous support - this will help to change many youngster’s lives, for the rest of their lives."
