Permission to discuss stammering

The King's Speech is coming to a cinema near you - let's grab this chance to Talk About Stammering

"BSA will undertake a national media campaign of press releases but to be effective locally, we need your help."

The King's Speech, a new movie about the relationship between stammering George VI and his Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue, is going on national release on 7 January. This film will do great things for awareness - but we will need to work hard to improve understanding and awareness of stammering.

This is a potentially Oscar-winning film which shows people who don't stammer what life is like if you do. Colin Firth does an incredibly realistic job of conveying how it is to be stuck in a block with no control over your speech. No film has ever done that before. And the director, Tom Hooper, hasn't 'given' the King the kind of weak, stereotypical stammering personality we normally see. So the film will be very helpful in terms of creating greater empathy between stammerers and non-stammerers.

BSA needs your help - this is our once-in-a-generation moment to create change, and to increase awareness and greater understanding of stammering. BSA will undertake a national media campaign of press releases but to be effective locally, we need your help.

There are many ways in which The King's Speech gives you permission to talk about stammering:
Contact your local paper and send them a press release, and offer to talk about your own story (the personal angle works best). You can use this Press Release template (Word doc), or download as rtf document.
Contact your local radio station (www.radio-now.co.uk/main.htm) and offer to speak about stammering
Tell us you're prepared to be a media volunteer to talk to journalists on local papers and local radio stations (to all you SLTs out there - can you get permission from your managers in advance?)
Contact your local cinema (www.findanyfilm.com/find-a-cinema-1) and ask if you can put up a small table in the foyer and talk to people about stammering. One of our members contacted the 'audience development manager' at his local cimema and has arranged to give a short talk, just a few minutes long, in the cinema before the film begins - the cinema has arranged for local press to cover it.
Contact your local Rotary Club (www.rotary-ribi.org) and offer to speak about stammering. The club may decide to support the BSA
Contact the BSA (ja@stammering.org) and ask to be sent some BSA collection boxes - put one in your house and ask friends and family to take one, too. If you want to do a public collection though (e.g. in a town centre), let us know it's for that as you'll need a different kind of box and probably also local council permission, which we can apply for.

Talking about stammering is easy because, let's face it, you're the experts. And we can help you with all of these things - contacts, draft press releases which you can adapt to your needs, briefing papers with basic information on stammering, fliers and information leaflets. When you tell us that you're prepared to raise awareness locally, we'll swing into action, supporting you all the way.

If you feel you can help raise awareness of stammering, contact Norbert at the British Stammering Association: call 020 8983 1003, or email me at nl@stammering.org

January 2011