Literacy charity Chapter One has been supporting primary school children in Bradford since 2018 and is now seeking additional business partners to help expand into the Keighley ward of the city this academic year.

We are thrilled to be partnering with local businesses Emerald Publishing, Timothy Taylors and Keighley Made to provide more children in this part of Bradford with one-to-one reading support at the time they need it most. We're now calling on other businesses to join this important initiative.

Emerald Publishing's CEO, Vicky Williams, is the Chair of the Bradford Literacy Taskforce, which is supported by Business in the Community. The Taskforce is currently focusing on the Keighley area of Bradford, where primary schools have signed up to take part in Chapter One’s Online Reading Volunteers Programme. Vicky is spearheading the campaign to support more children in the area and is encouraging other local and national businesses to get involved.

A recent report conducted by Pro Bono Economics found that more than a quarter of five-year-olds in England didn’t meet expected levels of literacy. Previous research by the National Literacy Trust also found that Keighley is in the top 40% of areas across the country identified as needing support due to "entrenched" literacy problems.

Chapter One’s programme connects corporate volunteers with 5- to 8-year-olds for weekly online reading sessions. From being able to experience the joy of reading, to improved opportunities later in life, literacy in early years is of vital importance. In fact, reading for pleasure among young children is more strongly correlated with academic success than their parental income levels.

If you're part of an organisation that would also like to get involved, your business can help by supporting one or more teams of 10 employee volunteers with a donation of £3,400 for each team. This contributes towards operational, equipment and volunteer training costs.

If you're an individual who'd like to support the Chapter One’s work in Keighley, you can donate to Vicky's JustGiving page. Your money will be well spent supporting vital literacy work in Bradford and Keighley.

📚£10 could provide an enhanced DBS check to one volunteer enabling them to read with a child for a year.
📚£50 could provide a set of noise-cancelling headphones for a classroom of 10 children, who’ll use them for their weekly online sessions.
📚£100 could provide five 1:1 online reading sessions for one child
📚£450 could provide 1:1 online reading sessions for one child for an entire academic year

To find out more or to get involved contact our Business Development Manager, Sarah Taylor at sarah.taylor@chapterone.org.