Our History Our Voice is a project documenting and celebrating the history of Speak Out. For 25 years Speak Out has been providing important advocacy services to people with learning disabilities enabling them to have a voice and speak up about their lives, address challenges they face and take an active part in community life.
Our History Our Voice has been led by a research group made up of Speak Out service users. The research group recorded people’s memories and the impact Speak Out has had on their lives. The stories are told through oral history interviews and art and poetry workshops.
Watch this film by young film maker George Wyatt to find out more about the story of Our History Our Voice.
When did advocacy begin? Professor Jan Walmsley talks about the beginning of advocacy in the UK after the second World War and up until the 1990s.
Dr Elizabeth Tilley explains the impact of 2001 Valuing People legislation on the advocacy movement.
To find out about what it‘s like to be a person living with a learning disability in the UK today watch ‘The Balance of Rights’ – a film produced by AF Film in 2017.
some of our favourite pictures from the history project:
