One of the features of the National Year of Reading (NYR) will be volunteering to support reading. There are many ways in which Open University students and alumni can get involved. Below is an article, Opening Doors, which sets out the Open University's commitment to this strand of the NYR.

Parents can get involved to support their children's reading by becoming reading role models and getting involved with their children's schools. There is lots of information and ideas on how to go about this in our advice to families section of the website. Fathers and men might also want to consider becoming a Reading Champion.

The Reading Champions project was developed in response to the continuing national concern about boys' and men's underachievement and the lack of positive role models for boys' reading. It is a nationwide scheme which helps find, nurture and celebrate positive male role models for reading - not just well-known names who may be champions in their own fields, but other men and boys who take an interest in reading both for themselves and for other people. Find out more at www.readingchampions.org.uk

To focus its literacy project activity in the UK, the Open University is currently in discussions with the National Literacy Trust to work in partnership during the National Year of Reading 2008. The Open University describes what the university has planned. (This article is taken from Read On Winter 2007)

Universities occupy a unique place in society and, as a result, carry certain responsibilities. One of these is to play a developmental role in the communities in which they are sustained. This means that universities have to ask themselves what kind of engagement is appropriate to the issues and concerns of those communities. The Open University is entirely receptive to this broader role and its vice-chancellor, Professor Brenda Gourley, chairs a global project on literacy, through the Talloires Network: the heart of education for all, a cause that strikes at the very root of education. This global project has been designed to provide a scope broad enough to engage universities and, in particular their millions of students, all over the world in a diverse range of context-driven literacy projects. For more information on the Talloires Network project visit www.tufts.edu/talloiresnetwork/?pid=5&c=3

The project’s main aim is to encourage staff and students to volunteer with literacy projects in communities everywhere. Literacy is defined very broadly, going beyond language to encompass financial, technological as well as political literacy and also includes numeracy. With 220,000 students worldwide studying with The Open University (OU), the potential volunteering power behind the OU’s literacy project is immense.

To focus its literacy project activity in the UK, the OU is currently in discussions with the National Literacy Trust (NLT) to work in partnership during the National Year of Reading in 2008. Possible areas for joint working include the promotion of current NLT projects to staff, students and alumni of the OU, including the Family Reading Campaign; raising awareness of Reading Connects; supporting male parents to become Reading Champion dads; and encouraging their children’s schools to get involved in the scheme.

The Open University is excited to be taking up the National Year of Reading’s reading challenge, which asks organisations to commit to being involved throughout the year, by encouraging our students to become reading volunteers. We are also in talks to sponsor the creation of the National Year of Reading’s online reading volunteering database.

Another proposal for partnership working is currently being considered with the NLT and Changemakers, an independent charity which enables people to make a positive and continuing contribution to society. The possibilities of virtual reading volunteering, an idea that resonates with the teaching and learning approach of The Open University, would make increased opportunities for involvement available to an even larger group of potential volunteers.

The OU is also participating in UNESCO’s initiative to get universities involved with promoting literacy. The year 2007 is the half-way point in the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003-2012), so it is an appropriate moment to review the global literacy challenge. In recent years there has been a growing emphasis on the importance of literacy being recognised properly, particularly in its relation to development and democracy. The 2006 Global Monitoring Report for the Education for All campaign focused on literacy, and UNESCO is currently coordinating both the UN Literary Decade (2003-2012) and the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE). In conjunction with this, the OU will be working with the NLT to encourage increased university participation in the UK with the initiative.

In the meantime, the OU plans to create an on-line resource for the university community, including:

• access to information about literacy volunteering opportunities
• links to organisations with an interest in tackling literacy and enhancing educational opportunity
• a discussion forum for sharing experience and ideas
• provision of ‘case study’ material and updates on progress
• information about the global project and appropriate links.

The project will maintain links with other global higher education partners committed to the Global project and extend access to the online resource developed, as well as seeking ways for all partners to link with and contribute to UNESCO’s Education for All program.