The CCA’s Speakers’ Bureau launched in 2018 to create a platform for CCA Kids and Adults to share their passions, interests, professions and personal stories in front of an audience. The Bureau provides training and guidance equipping our speakers with the resources and guidelines to build on their current public speaking skills, while also providing avenues to educate the general public through speaking engagements at schools, organizations, clubs, and corporations.
Personal experience and interactions have impact. They create empathy and bonds. Audiences are much more likely to empathize and retain information when it is delivered by someone with a lived experience, giving a real “face” to medical terminology and statistics.
This is even more important in a world where disabilities are seen as limiting due to stigmas. Sharing one’s story, dreams, passions, and professions is a powerful way to find connection, validation, and understanding. [ref: project sleep]
As of the Fall of 2022, with the generosity of the Ananda Foundation and our mentors David Roche and Marlena Blavin, we are taking the Bureau a step further by establishing a speaker’s honorarium and travel fee. The honorarium and fee will not only support our speakers but a portion of the fee will be reinvested in a scholarship fund and continuous mentoring and training programs for our speakers. The scholarship fund will allow us to never deny a school or civic organization a speaker due to their inability to pay. While the training program grants us the opportunity to continue investing in the growth of our speakers.
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“Everything worked well! Grace and Lynn were prepared, kind, clear, and very engaging. My students stayed engaged the whole time, which is difficult to do. I really liked the layout and order of Grace’s presentation. Also, I appreciated that Grace is close in age to my students, as this made it more relatable to them. My students continue to talk about Wednesday’s session and it has definitely impacted their lives, as well as mine.”
– 5th Grade Teacher | Virtual Session
“We loved having Courtney and Shane join us at our 2022 DePuy Synthes CMF National Sales Meeting this year. They were extremely brave, honest, and passionate. They are an inspiration to our salesforce for their resiliency through Shane’s craniofacial journey. We would be lucky and honored to have them speak for us again in the future.”
– Associate Marketing Manager | On-site Session
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