LOOKING FOR SAFE SPACES DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC?
Consider drop-ins at HASA’s Center for Fluency Enhancement

The Center for Fluency Enhancement at HASA has planned special events and topics to celebrate International Stuttering Awareness Day on October 22, 2020. If this sounds like a place that you have been searching for, please join us. Contact John Sloan, jsloan@hasa.org for information and a link for the Drop-In meetings at HASA.

How many of us have been searching for a place to feel safe as we learn to live in this new world, threatened by viruses, racial injustice, economic insecurity, and political polarity?

Just finding a place, to share an experience, to address concerns, a place to raise your voice…in essence a sanctuary of sorts where you can share your fears and walk away feeling empowered and ready to face your challenges. At HASA that safe place is the Center for Fluency Enhancement (CFE), on Tuesday and Thursday evenings you can just “drop-in” to find that safe place. Like so many other encounters that take place on Zoom, The Center for Fluency Enhancement offers a virtual safe place for persons who stutter and for the network of family and friends who support them.

For millions of Americans, stuttering is a major life challenge. Imagine waking up each morning to the possibility of not being able to say your own name. In ordinary times, that awareness can be overwhelming. During a pandemic and quarantine, imagine the fear of speaking in an emergency, asking for help, responding to a question while masked, and maintaining a social distance. Certainly stressful conditions as you attempt to meet the daily challenges of your life.

With that awareness, The CFE at HASA set out to provide a safe place to allow persons who stutter a venue to have their voices heard, to share ideas, to seek help, and to find assurance that in their struggles, they are not alone. The “Drop-Ins” have become a much anticipated weekly celebration, an opportunity to spend time with a new family and to welcome others, seeking a place to raise their voices.

Topics that have been shared during encounters have represented the scope of social issues currently before us. And then there are evenings when all gathered have shared the need for family-style games such as “Family Feud” and “Two Lies and A Truth” to take a break from the outside world.

Contact John Sloan, jsloan@hasa.org for information.

Resources 

The Stuttering Foundation of America www.stutteringhelp.org