Voices: Loud and Clear — A fund at the Northwest Health Foundation

Voices: Loud and Clear is a fund at the Northwest Health Foundation dedicated to helping children, particularly girls, find their voice through training in public speaking.

Fund staff will partner with the Oregon Childrens’ Theatre to make public speaking programs available to school aged children, their parents and teachers

The genesis of this fund was inspired by research conducted by Carol Gilligan (In a Different Voice, 1982) who discovered the struggle of minority and women learners to claim the power of their own minds. Her study sought to better understand the needs of these learners and listen to their voices of truth, knowledge and authority. What she and her colleagues discovered was that conceptions of knowledge and truth that are accepted and articulated today have been shaped throughout history predominantly by the male-dominated majority culture.

Drawing on their own perspectives and visions, men have constructed the prevailing theories, written history (rather than herstory), and set values that have become the guiding principles for men and women alike, and that relatively little attention has been given to the unique modes of learning, knowing and valuing of minority cultures and women1, or how to give “voice” to these new perspectives (see Belenky et al, Women’s Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice and Mind. Basic Books: 1986).

For twenty years, Oregon Children’s Theatre (OCT) has been introducing children to “a world where imagination and creative expression thrive.” OCT’s mission is to advance growth, development and creativity through exceptional theater experiences. Though acting academies and in-school programs, they strive to reach every child with live theater, when for at least a moment, reality is suspended and wonder and imagination reign. One of the in-school programs offered by OCT is Loud and Clear, a residency program that uses theatrical performance techniques to introduce students to public speaking.  Students learn techniques for achieving good diction, fluency and posture, using their voice to create volume and inflection and recognizing vocabulary and visual cues. They are coached in the importance of practicing and rehearsing.

The Voices: Loud and Clear fund will make this unique OCT program available to children that wouldn’t generally have access to this type of training. Through school services and outreach, boys and girls, their parents and teachers will be invited to participate in Loud and Clear residencies in the hope that one day, they will find the power of their minds and voice: their truth, their knowledge and their authority.

If you would like to contribute to this fund, please send a check to:

Voices: Loud and Clear
Northwest Health Foundation
221 NW Second Avenue, Suite 300
Portland, OR 97209

More on this program can be found at the Oregon Children’s Theater website.