A Year of Speaking Up: The Story of Empowering Voices

It isn’t easy to set up a charity, but when you have a passion to help people who stammer, this is an unstoppable motivation. Ian tells the story of Empowering Voices from an idea to a UK-wide organisation.

I was lucky enough to retire early, and with that came the gift of time — time to give something back and do things that felt meaningful. I tried my hand at a few things: volunteering at my local hospital, maintaining a woodland, and even joining a Search and Rescue team, which I eventually helped become a charity. All of this was rewarding and enjoyable, but deep down I knew where my real passion lay: helping the stammering community.

More than 20 years ago, I discovered a speaking technique, along with thousands of others in the UK, that helped me flip the switch from fear to excitement during speaking situations. It transformed every part of my life — not just how I spoke, but how I felt and how I lived. From that moment on, I felt a pull to help others experience the same freedom. Over the years, I’ve done all I can to share this breathing technique and approach to speech with people who stammer, so they too can speak with calm, confidence, and without fear.

When I retired, the idea of setting up a charity kept bubbling away in my mind — a charity run by people who stammer, for people who stammer. After a lot of thinking, soul-searching (and, I’ll admit, some dithering), I finally took the plunge in January 2024. What began as just me very quickly became “we.”

Once I started sharing the idea, the support was overwhelming. A small group of us came together, wrote a constitution, established policies, and completed the necessary legal requirements. By 11th April 2024, Empowering Voices was officially granted charitable status.

At that stage, it’s hard not to wonder: is this a brilliant idea, or are we just dreamers? Thankfully, it turned out to be the former!

When we first visited a college to find a venue for our very first course, we thought a room for 12 would be more than enough. But word spread fast. We kept asking for bigger rooms until finally, the college gave us the largest one they had. On a grey, rainy day in Peterborough, 27 people turned up for our very first course. That day set the tone for everything that followed.

And what a year it has been! In just over 12 months, we’ve run two courses in Peterborough and one in Bath, with another planned for Sheffield this November. More courses across the UK are already planned for 2026. Alongside this, we’ve seen a wonderful community grow around Empowering Voices — from support groups to people stepping up on committees and joining our support directory. Together, we’re building something really special.

Of course, setting up a new charity also means learning the ropes: Charity Commission returns, annual reports, accounts and AGMs. We held our very first AGM recently — not just to share what we’ve achieved and what’s next, but also to listen. It was an opportunity for supporters to ask questions, share ideas, and help shape the future of Empowering Voices.

Has it all been easy? Not at all. Setting up a charity for people who stammer has been a steep learning curve, with its fair share of challenges. But the joy of seeing someone begin to change their relationship with their speech, to speak with more freedom and confidence, and for the fear to fade makes it worthwhile.

As we look ahead to 2026 and beyond, we are filled with gratitude for everyone who has supported us so far. Together, we’re creating something that will help many more people who stammer across the UK, which can only be a good thing.