Voices of a Dream: Stories from A Touch of Understanding

Do you remember when you were a child? Can you picture that one student in your school who was always teased or bullied because he or she seemed "different?" It may have been the way she walked, or the way he struggled to read. He may have been short. She may have been overweight. He may have had emotional outbursts. She may have used a wheelchair. There was at least one student who was teased or bullied for being different. You may have seen it happen. You may have been the one being teased or bullied. Or, you may have been the bully. Everyone has been touched by this destructive cycle.

A Touch of Understanding works every day to help children who are the victims of teasing and bullying, along with those who witness the incidents and the children who do the teasing and bullying. In Voices of a Dream, you will meet the ATOU Team members who helped one woman turn her dream into a movement to promote genuine inclusion of all children in school and community settings, a movement that is touching thousands of lives each year, breaking down the walls of misunderstanding and abuse, and building bridges of friendship.

You will read about an aerobatic pilot who uses two myo-electric hands, a young woman with autism who stretched beyond her comfort zone and is now in film school, a survivor of a tragic drunk driving accident who was the impetus for this book. You will read about the many people who came together to share their stories to educate and inspire a new generation to welcome those who seem "different" for any reason.

Jill Mason was one of Britain's first women gamekeepers, a job which she enjoyed for over 30 years. She has lived and worked in the countryside all her life and writes for several country and fieldsports magazines. Jill's husband David, formerly also a gamekeeper, is now retired and an enthusiastic and dedicated photographer of wildlife and the countryside. They live in a village in Norfolk.