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Speakers’ Corner Trust is a registered charity which promotes free expression, public debate and active citizenship.

Our approach is based on the belief that association between citizens and the free, face-to-face exchange of ideas, information and opinions – with each other as well as with the decision-takers among them – is a key to rebuilding trust and participation in community life and governance in Britain and developing vibrant civil institutions and robust rights in emerging democracies.

Our Key Activities

  • Programmes & Projects

    SCT has three core programmes, the first focused on creating a national network of local Speakers' Corner projects in the UK, the second on undertaking initiatives overseas and the third on developing educational resources designed to encourage and enable people to express their ideas and opinions in public. More

  • Special Initiatives & Resources

    SCT has formed a number of partnerships with major organisations which enable it to pursue projects which it could not undertake alone. It has, for example, worked with the Southbank Centre on the production of Speaking Out, a download introducing the basic skills required for confident speaking in public, and with Central St Martins College of Art and Design on the creation of prototype Speakers’ Corners.More

  • Youth Amplified Goes Live!

    Youth Amplified went online on 14 May. It's free to use and features videos, animations and downloadable guides for teachers and youth workers designed to help 11-18 year-olds develop effective speaking and listening skills and confidence in using them.

    The website is the outcome of a nine month project by SCT and the University of Leeds supported by the BAFTA-winning digital design agency Bold Creative and funded buy the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. You can access Youth Amplified here.

  • Latest News

    • Speakers’ Corner Set For British Library

      SCT is collaborating with the British Library in a series of mini debates to take place during the Library’s ground-breaking Propaganda: Power and Persuasion exhibition which opens on 17 May and runs until 17 September.

      Four open-air lunchtime debates will take place over 45 minutes between 2 and 5 September in the Poet’s Circle in the Library’s piazza. Following brief introductions to the theme, the debates will be open to all-comers and will address such questions as whether propaganda can serve a public interest, how it interacts with new media, its influence on the news and its relationship with free speech.

  • Support SCT

    SCT is a small and cost-efficient registered charity with very low overheads. Since we were formed in 2007, we have successfully extended the scope and reach of our work through partnership and collaboration rather than by increasing our own size and costs. That remains our strategy.

    But like any other charity we do have to meet our modest costs and your support would be very much appreciated.

    Find out how you can support our work.


Hot Topics

  • Forum for Debate

    In the latest in our series of online debates New Media - Making or Breaking Connections? Professors Susan Greenfield and Stephen Coleman debate the impact of the internet and social networking on human behaviour.

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  • Nigeria Speakers’ Corner

    With support from the Ford Foundation, SCT has established Speakers' Corner Trust Nigeria as an affiliated but independent sister organisation. Following its launch in Abuja in November 2012, SCTN is now planning its first local projects.

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  • Leicester Speaks

    Since SCT helped originate Leicester Speaks during Local Democracy Week in 2010, the local partnership has gone from strength in each successive year - as you can see from these three short but inspirational films.

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  • Speaking Out

    Speaking Out is a fifteen minute film jointly commissioned by SCT and the Southbank Centre which seeks to provide inspiration and encouragement to people who have opinions and ideas to communicate.

    More