Hi, my name is Fraser Somerville, I’m 21, I’m from Glasgow, I have Athetoid Cerebral Palsy and I am the founder of the Glasgow AAC Group.
Why I started the Glasgow AAC Group
My reasonings behind starting an AAC group is because I don’t come across many people who use some form of AAC. Another reason is I was attending the Straight Talking group in Dundee and I really enjoyed it. However, it was getting a bit too much for me because I had to travel two hours there and two hours back.
Setting up the AAC Group
In order for me to start this AAC group I had to contact SCTCI who is the communication aid team for Scotland. I got in touch with them as they have the knowledge of who uses AAC across Glasgow. From there I had to secure a venue, I reached out to Tesco at Silverburn to see if I could use their community hub but unfortunately it didn’t work out as there was barriers I had to overcome before securing the room.
Then I had a light bulb moment to contact the founder of Include Me 2, Paul Mcilvenny, I explained I wanted to start my own AAC group and I asked him did he have anywhere that was available. I was delighted when he said I could use their building at Cardonald which is called The Hub.
I made up a flyer using Canva – luckily I had some experiences from past courses I have attended. Included in the flyer was that it is an adult only group and it runs every fourth Thursday, the reason being is that I wanted to interact with people who are on my wavelength and I could relate to. This flyer got sent to the SCTCI team and they displayed it in their office. A few days after this, I was emailed by a few people who said they were interested in joining the AAC group and I was overjoyed by this.
The first session
The day had finally arrived after a lot of organising, I was very nervous in case nobody showed up but luckily three other AAC users came. We sat round the table and got to know one and other. At the end of the session we played a game called two truths and a lie which was real fun. It was very refreshing to interact with people who use a communication aid like myself. My aim for this group is to gain friendships and be involved in the community to give the public an insight on how to communicate with users of different types of AAC.
Interested? Join in!
The Glasgow AAC User Group is for adults only and runs on the last Thursday of every month between 1.30-3.30pm at the Cardonald Hub, 25 Lammermoor Avenue, Glasgow, G52 3BE.
If anyone is interested in joining this AAC group, please contact Fraser via email: aacgroupglasgow@outlook.com