Ideas
As I’m new, I’m trying to work my way through all the old posts, so apologies if this isn’t really relevant anymore.
I think we could look at this from 2 perspectives, a] awareness raising, informing everyone else about the realities of living with a voice problem b] supporting those with a voice problem. Some of these ideas may do both. Apologies though, some of my ideas can be strange…
Video clips – very short clips with voice overs at the end.
Video1 clip of Norman Collier doing the faulty microphone sketch and then voice over saying something like ‘very funny as a comedy sketch, but not so funny when voice problems affect your everyday life. For more information and support, contact Lary at
http://voiceproblemsupport.ning.com/Video 2 – black screen, famous voice speaking, black screen fades up to show picture of the famous person, this happens 3 times with 3 different voices and faces then voice over says ‘Many of us are instantly recognisable just from our voices, but what happens when your voice doesn’t sound like you any more? For more information and support, contact Lary at
http://voiceproblemsupport.ning.com/ Video 3 – the clip from Singing in the Rain where they start making ‘Talkies’ and the woman’s voice doesn’t match her image, then the voice over with something like ‘are your voice problems impacting on your work and career? For more information and support, contact Lary at
http://voiceproblemsupport.ning.com/A Lary Logo which can be put on a variety of different things, including perhaps a badge, posters etc etc
A Lary Card – credit card style card, logo and web address on one side and the other side says something like ‘I have a medical condition which affects my vocal cords, please listen carefully as I may be difficult to hear’ [or for those with a more irreverent sense of humour and a fondness for ‘Allo Allo’ ‘Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once’]
A Sponsored Silence, Silent Sit In or a Silent March [I’ve been on one of these many years ago and it was unbelievably powerful.
You mentioned there was work being done to become a charity, as charity we may be able to do other things, for example…
Contact
www.naturalreaders.com and ask them to supply their text to speech software to our members either free or at a reduced rate [thank you Janet for that info about T2S software]
Also yes, have a patron, but I’m wondering [thinking sideways] whether someone with a strong voice that they use to make their living with might be a good choice if Julie says no. I'm thinking sort of Shakespearean actor type Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen etc. In my mind’s eye I can see someone like that talking on BBC Breakfast very powerfully about how devastating voice problems might be to them, really making people think, as sadly, I think sometimes when you have someone advocating for situations that are personal to themselves it’s not always so strong a message. Sorry I’m not explaining that well.
Big store or supermarket support
Wordsmithers Support, get scriptwriters, poets, playwrights involved, i.e people who write words to put into other people’s mouths
Participation exhibitions – ‘Having the Last Word’ exhibit. Approach an Arts Centre, community centre etc etc and ask them to support this. People passing through the centre are invited to write on a postcard [or a speech bubble shaped piece of card]. They are asked to think about [and write down] what their last words might be if they were about to lose their voice completely and who they would say those last words to and then hand the card in. The cards are then displayed at a later date and everyone can read what other people wrote. Very thought provoking and good for press articles too and Lary info can be available at the centre
And finally, probably not appropriate, so apologies again, but in the spirit of reclaiming words often used to define and describe us and to defiantly show that we may have lost our original voices but not our sense of humour … a badge for all group members with these words on it … Hoarse Whisperer.
