Supporting Read Easy Wyre Forest

President 2023/2024 Keith Simmons studying one of the books which the grant has paid for with Read Easy co-ordinators Raine and Liz at Kidderminster Library

Like much over the past two years Covid has had an impact on what we were planning back in 2019. In July of that year we made a joint application with Stourport Rotary for a District Grant towards the cost of resources for Read Easy Wyre Forest, which at the time was in its second year of operation and growing. 

Read Easy groups train volunteer reading coaches who then give one-to-one, confidential tuition to local adults who either don’t read at all or who struggle with their reading. All the reading coaches and management team are volunteers and tuition is free. Read Easy prides itself on giving people the chance to learn at their own pace through a friendly and flexible approach enabling the readers to build not only their reading skills but also their confidence and self-esteem.

When lockdown happened in March 2020, the face-to-face nature of working with a new adult reader meant that operations had to be suspended, but in autumn 2021 they began preparations to re-start. Five reading coaches had been lost, leaving only four still active, so a coach recruitment campaign was started and, with the help of the publicity generated by the BBC1 ‘Jay Blades – Learning to Read at 51’ documentary, new coaches were recruited to the team who finished their training last autumn. The group now has a team of thirteen coaches, eleven working with new readers and two who are waiting to be matched up. The plan is to recruit an additional two reading coaches to bring the number up to fifteen. 

The District Foundation Grant of £800, matching Bewdley and Stourport Rotary joint contribution, has enabled resources needed for the reader’s tuition to be replenished and updated. Steve Peckham, the Wyre Forest Read Easy group leader, stated, “Apart from assisting in the day to day running of the group, the funds received have also helped us to re-stock and enhance our two ‘Resources Boxes’ held at Kidderminster Library and Trinity Methodist Church. With more new readers, there was a particular need to source more of the accompanying reading books for older learners and those sets of books are quite expensive.”

Steve continued, “We are very grateful to Bewdley and Stourport Rotary Clubs, and particularly Tom Elliott, whose perseverance resulted in Read Easy Wyre Forest receiving £1600, more than half of our estimated annual running costs, which is a big relief because, as you know, we live a little hand to mouth. In addition we are grateful to Bewdley Rotarians Sheila Cookson, who secured two large roller banners for us, free of charge, that we now use whenever we have a stand anywhere to publicise what we do; Terry Garbett who has stayed in touch and always been there offering support and the chance to return to speak to your members; Andrew Page who has recently joined our management team and President Elect, Keith Simmons, who took the time to meet up with us to learn more about Read Easy Wyre Forest.”

For more information on Read Easy UK and Read Easy Wyre Forest click on the hyperlinks. The Rotary GB&I magazine published an article on the developing relationship between Read Easy and Bewdley Rotary in the June 2021 issue.