Ealing Central and Acton MP Dr Rupa Huq has met with local reading charity Read Easy Ealing to find out more and highlight the work they do.
Read Easy Ealing, which is celebrating its second anniversary in April, is a charity that seeks to change lives by providing free, one-to-one reading tuition for local people.
According to Read Easy, its vision is “for all adults in the borough of Ealing to have the literacy skills they need to realise their potential and live their life to the full.”
Catherine Jaquiss, founder of the Ealing Branch said: “We were established in April 21 and are currently working with 30 readers. By the end of our second year we’re expecting the number to have grown to 40. Our reading pairs meet in 16 different venues across Ealing and surrounding boroughs.”
Ms Jaquiss added: “We average 5 referrals a month; we take referrals from agencies and charities across the borough and from potential readers, their friends, or their families.”
During a recent quarterly coaches’ get-together, Dr Huq talked with volunteer reading coaches who offer one-to-one tuition to adults who can’t read or have very limited reading ability, heard about some of the learners’ recent successes and was shown the various phonics-based resources that are used by the organisation.
Dr Huq said she was “concerned to learn that more than 6% of UK adults are unable to read or have limited reading ability which equates to 13,600 adults in Ealing who seriously struggle with reading.”
Dr Huq added: “Reading is an invaluable skill that is required for most tasks in our everyday life and many of us take it for granted. Simple errands can soon become a nightmare for someone who can’t read as tasks like using a cashpoint or reading allergy information require literacy proficiency. It is essential that everybody is given the opportunity to learn to read.”
As well as encouraging more people to sign up if they wish to improve their reading skills, Read Easy Ealing is looking for more volunteers to help with being a reading coach.
To contact, Read Easy Ealing, click here.
