My name is Amanda Elias, and I am an SLP at the University of Louisiana Monroe. I am not a person who stutters, but I found a love for working with those who stutter in 2018. Since then, I’ve become a member of the National Stuttering Association (NSA) and established the Monroe, LA Chapter in 2019.
I have learned that getting a new chapter off the ground is not as easy as I thought it would be. My experiences echo other’s experiences in establishing and maintaining a stuttering support group.
The responsibility of planning, advertising, gathering needed material, following up with attendees, and possibly planning events outside of normal meeting times requires a significant time commitment that I wasn’t fully prepared for. My hope is that from this session, we can better identify barriers and develop solutions to increase participation in stuttering support groups.