The Get London Reading campaign is being rolled out across the UK with a series of copycat projects.
Literacy campaigns inspired by the successful Evening Standard project are springing up everywhere from Leeds to Essex.
It means the legacy of this newspaper’s reading campaign will be strengthened, with thousands more children who struggle to read given help.
Sue Porto, CEO of literacy charity Beanstalk, previously known as Volunteer Reading Help, said: “These new schemes are all really exciting and are all inspired by the Get London Reading campaign.”
Our campaign has raised more than £1 million for Beanstalk to recruit and train reading mentors for schoolchildren. It also helped recruit more than 400 new volunteers for the charity. Next month a Get Leeds Reading campaign will be launched, modelled directly on the Standard scheme, in partnership with the Yorkshire Evening Post.
Ms Porto said: “After the success of Get London Reading I sent a letter to all the newspaper groups in the areas where we work saying we would be delighted to run something similar. As a result of that the Evening Post got in touch. That is how this idea was born.”
It is hoped the new campaign will boost results in Leeds, where more than 1,000 children left primary school unable to read last summer.
Nearly 40 people in Leeds currently volunteer in schools with Beanstalk, helping 120 children. The campaign aims to double that number within three months.
There are also discussions about launching a similar project in Northampton, as well as a Get Kent Reading scheme.
Priti Patel, MP for Witham in Essex, said she was so inspired by reading about the Get London Reading campaign that she launched a scheme on her own.
Get Witham Reading aims to link schools with local reading volunteers. Ms Patel said: “I was inspired by the Evening Standard campaign.”
