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03Mar2011
Announcing our new fundraising campaign

Posted by Jonathan Douglas

Everyone who reads our newsletter or uses our website must know the shocking statistic which describes the UK’s national literacy challenge: one in six people struggle to read and write. This compromises their employability, happiness and health. Increasing levels of literacy is the key to the creation of a fairer society.

For thousands teachers, tutors, librarians, writers and publishers, addressing this challenge sits at the heart of their vocation. The National Literacy Trust exists to champion their work, to innovate, campaign and to give voice to those who face exclusion because of their low levels of literacy. We have a vital mission.

In the last week we have discovered that from 1 April 2011 this mission will not be supported by any government funding. This means that the National Literacy Trust will lose £1m - over 40% of our annual budget. Our work is urgent and it is vital that it is sustained. We are therefore immediately launching a £1m fundraising campaign to allow this crucial work to continue.

Our fundraising campaign was launched last night at Anthony Horowitz’s lecture [hyp] in memory of Sir Simon Hornby, our founder. Anthony’s talk challenged us all to understand the link between exclusion and literacy. He championed the school library, describing it as “the beating heart of any school” and he stressed the importance of stories in establishing and maintaining cultural and personal identity in an increasingly diverse society. His analysis provides the National Literacy Trust with our campaigning challenge.

As well as enabling us to make literacy an issue of national debate and to continue directly supporting children and families, our fundraising campaign will also give us the resources to address the new challenges that are emerging. Decreased children’s centre provision, cuts to public libraries, the closure of schools library services and less support for schools from local authorities all threaten to undermine literacy levels. The need for literacy issues to be heard loud and clear is more pressing than ever as is the need for effective community literacy initiatives.

We are appealing to everyone who supports our mission to support our fundraising campaign. Details of how you can support us are here.

Over the next months we will keep you up-to-date with how our campaign develops. We want it to be an exciting campaign that brings new resources into play to support literacy in the UK. Low levels of literacy creating social inequality and provoking exclusion are not inevitable. This issue can be addressed. Thank you for your support in tackling the issue.