Got to Read, SBL’s Charity of the Year

Got to Read is a registered charity operating from Tower Street in the centre of Ipswich. We have been active for around 15 years. We provide free, bespoke 1 to 1 support to people who need help with their reading, writing and spelling. 

We offer a second chance to adults who have fallen through the educational net, often because of dyslexia, ill health, or because they have been caught in a cycle of illiteracy from their childhood. Perhaps their parents did not or could not value education. 

We provide training and support for volunteers and a simple learning framework for non educationalists to support the learning of an adult, working at their pace. Most of our students go on to get a job, a better job and build their confidence to enable them to fulfill their goals. Many of our students see it as ‘me time’, when they can ignore their worries and spend an hour building their skills and seeing success.

Effect of illiteracy

1 in 6 people in England have a reading age below 11 years. 

People who are illiterate are frequently living on the margins, they are isolated and vulnerable, they struggle to get support for their health, wellbeing, job access and access to benefits. Crime is closely linked to literacy issues, 1 in 2 prisoners have a reading age below 11 years. They struggle to support their children learning to read and a cycle of illiteracy forms within families as they do not put emphasis on the importance of education. 

Many of our students have low self esteem, lack confidence and have financial and mental health issues linked to their illiteracy. 

How do we spend our money?

The charity runs on a financial shoestring, our biggest cost is providing a safe place for students and volunteers to come together. We are entirely run by volunteers. 

Your donation and your help

We very much appreciate the support of the Suffolk Book League. It's lovely when two charities sharing a love of reading and understanding the importance of reading come together. We always need more books, the learning scheme we use costs £35 per book and each student and volunteer needs their own copy. We will buy more copies of ‘Yes We Can Read’. We also intend to purchase some dyslexia friendly books. They cost £17 each on average. 

The books we use to support our students' reading are expensive because they are adult themed and not children's books. 

Volunteering with us

If you would like to make a difference in someone's life, we are always in search of more volunteers, we run training programmes every six months, although we support our volunteers and give advice throughout the year. We are a friendly bunch and are looking for patient people with a love of reading who have an hour to spare to support another adult. 

Do get in touch, we will send more information about volunteering with us and arrange a meeting to talk about our charity to enable you to make an informed decision before agreeing to attend a training session. 

Thank you very, very much for your donation, it means a lot to enable us to keep the charity going and it will help to change lives. 

Website:  Gottoread.org.uk

Email:      Info@gottoread.org.uk

Tel no:      07528 147654

Either Kay McElhinney or Angela Gage will be in touch with you.