Businesses in Gloucestershire are being asked to help primary school children learn to read, in a bid by Gloucestershire literacy project Read With Me to help improve the literacy of local children.
Read With Me wants businesses in Gloucestershire to allow employees to give an hour a week, either in one hour long session or two half hour sessions, to provide local children with a 15 minute time slot to read aloud to them.
One in five children in the country leave primary school unable to read well. The scheme hopes that with more people working from home, employees will have the opportunity to donate their time to help local children improve their literacy skills and develop a lifelong love of reading.
For businesses, the scheme provides a meaningful way to fulfil CSR obligations, with a clear benefit to the local community.
Read With Me founder, Linda Cohen, said: ‘We set up Read With Me to provide reading support to the children who would otherwise leave primary school unable to read well. However, the time lost this year due to school shutdown has made the situation much worse and we urgently need more volunteers to help plug the gap.
‘Children who are unable to read properly by the age of seven never catch up. They do less well at school, have dramatically reduced employment choices and earning opportunities. The UK has the worst literacy rates in the developed world.
‘The results of the project are transforming… Vitally, children become more confident, articulate and happy as a by-product of this programme.’
For more information, call Linda Cohen at Read With Me on 07791110906.
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