The Parkinson Voice Project recently awarded the 2021 SPEAK OUT! & LOUD Crowd Grant to the Center for Communication Disorders at UW-Eau Claire to help make speech treatment more accessible to folks in the Chippewa Valley community through the university’s already thriving program. Heather Pederson, director of UWEC’s Center for Communication Disorders, says the center has a robust program that allows graduate students to work with licensed speech language pathologists to develop their skills. “Our goal in the Center for Communication Disorders is to provide this ongoing therapy service to support those in our community living with Parkinson’s without concern for payment,” Pederson said. Because the program enables students to get real-world experience, Pederson said UWEC made a perfect fit for the grant. The Parkinson Voice Project is the only nonprofit in the world dedicated to helping people with Parkinson’s to regain their voice and swallowing abilities. The organization has given out grants to two other UW System schools: UW-River Falls and UW-Milwaukee.