The Speak Story

The initial idea for Speak came from Rich Amos during his time on the National Star College Student Union. He now explains how the opportunity arose and how we aim to develop Speak:

"My first introduction to Advocacy was in July 2007. This was when the Student Union were holding elections to form the committee for the forthcoming academic year, with one of the posts being Advocacy Officer. At the time I didn't know much about advocacy apart from knowing that the basic principles were to assist people in getting their voice heard. My campaign was successful and I was elected as the officer. As a result, I was really pleased knowing my efforts would potentially make a difference to students' lives.

Time went by and I was invited to attend a training course. This was really interesting as I was learning alongside Social Workers and GPs, also my respect for the topic increased and I realised how diverse the subject was. The result was that I became qualified and was raring to start in September.

In May 2008, I was invited to "pitch" my vision at the Dragons Den event which was part of the successful Employability+ skills festival. I decided to pitch my idea around wanting to extend the service I was currently running out into Gloucester. As a result of my presentation I ignited particular interest from local businessman, Steve Jones.

Soon after, we met to discuss how we could collaborate and then agreed we both felt there was a hole in the market which we would aim to fill!"

The idea was a meeting of minds and experience. Rich was keen to promote advocacy and the voice of young people with disabilities, Steve was interested in web design and promoting the internet as a vehicle to inform and link people with disabilities. In addition, Rich was increasingly getting requests to speak to groups and organisations about advocacy and disability issues. Planning for the business started in earnest in September, when Rich met again with Steve Jones and was also introduced to Ed Smith, a programmer from N4 Solutions. With the all the computer expertise, (Rich is studying IT at level 3), a website was an obvious choice, along with training and of course, peer advocacy.

The first phase, was to "brand" the service. To complete this phase the team worked with a Graphic Designer from N4 and undertook many hours of student/customer consultation! The resulting logo reflects an upbeat, direct and straightforward approach which was particularly popular with students.

Now the business had a name - Speak - the ideas started to flow. More students were recruited to form a steering group. Currently, Rich works in any spare time he has to promote the website, inform staff and students in the college and make contacts in the community. We have defined Speak's scope of practice to:

Speak online - an advocacy website that will be a fun and interactive place for individuals to gather specialist information on how they easily express their views and play an active role within society.
Speak Peer Advocacy - expanding on the service that is currently run through the Student Union, we will employ an independent supervisor to ensure independence and confidentiality is maintained and that the service is run autonomously from the college.
Speak Training - to raise awareness in the community we will provide training to different sectors and individuals to enable them to advocate and represent young people with disabilities.

Students are central to the business idea, they are running it, and will continue to contribute in the future - it doesn't work without them!

Speak was officially launched at a fantastic, massive party on 16th May 2009 at the National Star College!