COMMUNITY NEWS

Read Easy...

Read Easy Bristol is Helping More People Learn to Read Did you know that many people in UK struggle to read? 1 in 20 people over the age of 18 have a reading age of 5 years old or less (Skills for Life Survey2011). This means they will be unable to read labels in supermarkets, bus time-tables, write a shopping list, read to their children, or even spell their own address. They are much more likely to be unemployed and live in poverty. People may have reading difficulties for a variety of reasons, including poor schooling, special needs, disrupted childhoods, or dyslexia. Many of these people hide their difficulties, having been shamed at school. They often find classes difficult and miss out on adult learning schemes. We offer one to one help that is friendly, flexible and free. We recruit and train volunteer reading coaches and match them to people who want help. We see people in a public venue close to the reader’s home. For more information please see: https://readeasy.org.uk/what-we-do/. We are affiliated to Read Easy UK (https://readeasy.org.uk). We started as Read Easy South Bristol in January 2015, and more recently have expanded to cover Central Bristol with an aim to extend across the whole of Bristol. We are very grateful to our main funders, the Quartet Foundation and John James Bristol Foundation Trust for enabling us to help people in South Bristol and more recently thanks to a generous donation from the Big Lottery we can now expand across a wider area of Bristol. We are looking for volunteers including coaches, coordinators, a development worker and management team members. For more information contact us at bristol@readeasy.org.uk.3 Rica Newbery Management Team Read Easy Bristol

Bristol Libraries: New ideas created together Have you got ideas or suggestions for your library and its building? Can you help make these ideas happen? We are inviting you to come along to one of our community events running from January, which will bring local people and organisations together to look for opportunities for community-led activities and partnerships to create a library service for the future. This is everyone’s opportunity to work together to pilot new ideas. The library service is greatly valued but it needs to change to be more relevant to the neighbourhood and local people. We need to work together to create a library service which will serve future generations and be well connected to everything else that’s going on in the local area. This is your chance to be part of it – just come along with your ideas. The following events are taking place – the libraries being discussed at each event are detailed in the listing – please book on to the relevant one for the library you are interested in. City Hall Tuesday 12 February 10am-12noon Tuesday 12 February 6-8pm Libraries being discussed: Central, Clifton, Redland, Bishopston and St Pauls

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Made by local people, for local people. Get in touch and get involved at info@vocalisemagazine.org.uk