ELSA - VOE

ELSA, Zülpicher Str. 58 D-50674 Köln, Germany
Tel. +49 221 139 1106 fax + 49 221 139 1370
e-mail elsa@bvss.de

ELSA, 31 Grosvenor Road, Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE2 2RL, Great Britain
Tel. +44 191 281 8003 fax+44 191 281 8003
e-mail elsa.europe@totalise.co.uk

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The Voice of ELSA

Autumn 1997

New Dutch Stutter Information Centre in Utrecht/Netherlands

Since the beginning of April 1997, the new Stutter Informaton Centre in th eNetherlands is a fact. It is the resultof a fruitful co-operation beween concerned organisations. This article, from Elsa oficial and new Dutch delegate Alien Timans, describes teh history of th edifferent organisations and explains the structure of the new co-operation. (Alien acknowledges the article,by Joost van Omen, Dutch Association Chair, in the January/February 1997 edition of the Demosthenes magazine as the source for her article).

Abbreviations used are

SVS - Stichting tot Voorlichting over Stotteren (publicity)
NVST - Nederlandse 'Vereniging voor Stottertherapie (therapists)
NFS (old style) - Nationaal Fonds Stotteren (fund raising)
NFS (new style) - Nederlandse Federatie Stotteren (federation)

1966 - 1979 - 1987 - 1990. These years stand for the years of establishment of Demosthenes (Dutch stuttering association), SVS (publicity), NVST (therapists), and of the NFS (old-style; fund-raising). These organisations had one thing in common: stuttering.

The co-operation started at the point of the establishment of the SVS in which Demosthenes organised its public relations activities. During these PR activities, SVS co-operated with speech and stutter therapists. The establishment of the NFS (old style) was a second step towards a bigger co-operation. The main task of the "old" NFS was to raise funds to support projects in the field of publicity, prevention and research. The first big action was the National Stuttering Awareness Week in 1994. In that period, the ideas about an information/documentation centre became more concrete.

Still, there were some vagaries in the past period. For example, people didn't know where to go to. That's why the NFS (new style) and the Stutter Information Centre were established. The new NFS will stop all the cutting-up and all the different "faces" without weakening the identity of the participating associations (Demosthenes and the NVST). The articles of the NFS determine that the majority of the Board Members of the NFS should consist of members of Demosthenes (half + one). This guarantees Demosthenes' voice in this co-operation.

The Stutter Information Centre has a number of tasks: to provide information about stuttering to be a documentation centre to distribute leaflets/packs etc. to provide administrative and secretarial support for the organisation(s).

So far, the Stutter Information Centre has one part-time employee. The Centre will also be used as a meeting-place for the Board of the NFS, for the Boards of the participating organisations, and for the different working groups.

The structure of the NFS (new style) can be seen in the illustration below. The activities of the SVS will be placed in the working group publicity, the fund-raising activities of the NFS (old style) in the working group fund raising.

Chart