News
Community volunteers improve children’s literacy
4 Jul 2012
An evaluation of our London Literacy Champions project has found that community volunteers can improve how parents and carers support their children’s early literacy development. The project involved more than 500 volunteers working with nearly 1500 families and used the unique power of peer volunteers to increase families’ confidence in supporting positive literacy attitudes and behaviours.
The community volunteers took part in around six weekly sessions with an assigned family. Parents taking part in the project reported significant changes in their children’s literacy development and how they felt they could support it. 84 per cent felt that the project would have a long-term impact on their child’s reading and communication skills. 100 per cent felt more confident about attending literacy activities and story telling at their local library, with more than half of families saying they would have been unlikely to attend these sessions without the support of their volunteer.
An analysis of children participating in the project reported that 52 per cent showed an improved engagement with books and stories and 46 per cent showed improved speaking and listening skills. 69 per cent of staff felt these gains to be directly related to the families’ involvement in the project.
London Literacy Champions is linked to the Team London programme funded by the Mayor of London and the Reuben Foundation and was delivered in partnership with 19 London authorities from June 2011 to May 2012. The National Literacy Trust will continue to develop the Literacy Champions programme nationally.
Visit our research pages to read the evaluation report.
Literacy Champions projects are currently running in Wythenshawe, Middlesbrough, Birmingham and parts of London. If you are interested in finding out more about the projects in these areas, or would like to find out more about the project generally please contact jennifer.cole@literacytrust.org.uk.
If you would like to set up a Literacy Champions programme in your area, a commercial model is available to purchase. Please contact andy.parkinson@literacytrust.org.uk for more information.
