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Speaking Out - Employment Campaign Launch
Local transport charity a driving force for people who stammer
Report by Andrew Harding
 To Employment index
Creating a future: Hackney Community Transport director Dai Powell. Building a team that believes in giving everyone an opportunity makes good commercial and moral sense.
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There are as many ways to overcome stammering as there are ways to stammer. For Dai Powell it was when he realised that working in jobs with no telephone was a path to jobs with no future. It was when he was doing an apprenticeship that he began to meet more people and face the challenges of moving around and travelling. Things improved again when Dai first joined Hackney Community Transport (HCT) as a volunteer.
"What you were actually doing was the most important thing. I was in a team that believed in giving everyone an opportunity. People wanted to hear my story and I wanted to belong," he said.
Now as director of the same organisation he said: "We as employers can overcome our prejudices by giving equal chances to speak at meetings and attend training courses. Employing people who stammer makes good commercial sense. It also makes good moral sense. We want our organisation to be part of their story."
At school he played the role of the nice kid who stayed out of trouble because it was easier to avoid talking than it was to avoid going to school. In high school he developed techniques to be invisible, putting all his efforts into "mechanisms to get by, rather than learn".
As well as being the director of HCT, Dai now chairs the Community Transport Association and gives speeches to audiences of 250 people.
"I love it now as a challenge because people are waiting for me to speak, not waiting for me to stammer".
Professor James Law (centre) is a member of the school's steering group, led by BSA education officer Cherry Hughes (left). Helen Barker (right) is the co-founder of the Dominic Barker Trust.
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From the Autumn 2001 edition of Speaking Out
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