Blog: Celebrating Volunteers' Week 2025

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Volunteers at STAMMAFest 2024

Kirsten Howells, STAMMA's Director of Services, shares a message of appreciation for volunteers as we celebrate Volunteers' Week 2025.

STAMMA's amazing volunteers are at the heart of our work and our achievements. Without them, we would be tiny. But with them, STAMMA is a force to be reckoned with. 

The support we provide for people who stammer, and much of the work we do with organisations, is driven by our volunteers who so generously share their time, enthusiasm and expertise.

We're enormously grateful for the work they do. So, we thought National Volunteers' Week was a great opportunity to share with the wider world the difference our volunteers make in creating a better world for people who stammer.

Here are some examples of what they do… 

Vital for our services

There's the helpline team, working across our phone, webchat and email services — the first port of call for parents worried that their child has started stammering. Or those who feel down or who are despairing about their stammer and looking for help. Or even people who just fancy a friendly chat with someone who won't hang up or judge them. In the last year, our helpline team has responded to 1,307 calls, webchats and emails. That's a lot of people whose lives those volunteers have touched.

Then there's the volunteers who give their time in very specialised service roles, working behind the scenes to improve the quality of STAMMA's work. So far in 2025, our Employment Support team have worked with 27 individuals, supporting them with issues around job interviews, getting work-based adjustments for stammering, or helping their colleagues and bosses understand how to create a more stammer-friendly working environment.

Working with our volunteers is the best bit of my job.

Also in 2025, volunteers in the Training team have delivered training on supporting staff and customers who stammer to 27 organisations. These organisations include NHS Trusts and Health Boards, debt support agencies, GP surgeries, corporates and trade unions. They've also run exhibition stalls at conferences and events, and developed resources and newsletters for organisations. They are very busy bees!

Volunteers in our Advocacy Service have supported 17 people so far this year in challenging discrimination they've faced for stammering. The volunteers have also been key in project work, building out from those individual cases to create change on a broader level. Some of the projects currently on the go and nearing completion include: 

• a guide for solicitors working with clients who stammer
• changes in exam board guidance for pupils who stammer taking oral exams
• a collaboration with the Parliamentary Modernisation Committee on making the workings of the House of Commons more accessible for politicians with communication differences. 

See our Making An Impact section to read about some of the wins these volunteers have helped to achieve for people who stammer.

Essential at our events

Anyone who attended STAMMAFest last year can tell you how fab the volunteers were. There's those who took on the mammoth task of helping to plan and organise our conference; those who helped to get the venue ready, assist attendees and answer their questions; helped at the Family Day. Basically they ensured that everyone had a good time. 

Then there's our online events. Volunteers on our Research Arena work with researchers and research teams to improve the quality and relevance of research in the field of stammering. People who give their time to help out with the Minecraft Club for young people and the Parent 2 Parent support groups. 

It doesn't stop there! There's the volunteer review team who give their time by reading and sharing their thoughts on new books, plays, podcasts, etc. And of course the dedicated people who run the STAMMA-affiliated local groups and communities.

Working with our volunteers is the best bit of my job. Their enthusiasm and passion is infectious, and seeing the range of skills and experience they bring to STAMMA is so exciting. They make such a difference. Without them, we simply wouldn't have our range of essential services. Without them, we wouldn't have lots of fresh new ideas and we wouldn't be able to work on so many projects at once. 

It's also a pleasure to be part of those teams and working groups. And to see the way the volunteers support one another as well as STAMMA's work. It's sounds cheesy, but together we really are stronger!

So here's to them this Volunteers' Week. We couldn't do it without them.

If you'd like to give your time to support our work and services for people who stammer, see Volunteer With Us.