A BRADFORD based charity that has helped tens of thousands of young people improve their reading skills has entered its 20th year.

Reading Matters was established in 1997, and trains both adults and young people to become “reading mentors” for children to help boost their literacy levels.

As well as school staff and pupils, Reading Matters also recently teamed with Boots and Bradford Bulls to train staff and players to become reading mentors.

And it also runs workshops to give parents the skills to help their children improve their literacy levels.

Most of the adult mentors are based in the West and South Yorkshire areas.

The charity’s records show that since 2008 alone almost 34,000 children have benefitted from their work.

In its first few years the charity reached between 50 and 100 children. By 2002 that number had risen to 1,500.

And in 2016 the number of children to benefit was 6,805, the highest figure yet.

The most recent report by the charity into the impact of its work found that children helped by the scheme have improved their reading age by 13 months, with some raising their reading age by up to four years.

The charity manages to achieve all this work despite having just six members of staff.

However, it still manages to have a huge impact in the local area - an area where there is unfortunately a need for extra support in reading.

Originally the charity, now based at Western House in Buttershaw, only provided reading mentors to pupils in secondary schools, but now also trains staff to become mentors in primary schools too.

The charity also trains Reading Leaders - school pupils who are able to help support younger pupils who struggle to get to grips with reading.

The Reading Leaders programme was rolled out in secondary schools in 2010 and primaries in 2012.

Rachel Kelly, Chief Executive, said: “Reading Matters was established in 1997 with the purpose of providing reading mentors for children who had recently made the transition from primary to secondary school and whose literacy skills were preventing them from doing their best.

“Since then we have expanded enormously and, through consultation with teaching staff and others, now offer a range of programmes which help children and young people across all the key stages to read well, with confidence and for enjoyment.

“I am very proud of everything that we have achieved in the last 20 years of Reading Matters and look forward to many more successful years to come.”

Marking the anniversary is a conference held at Bradford City Football Club on June 29 called Closing the Literacy Gap and featuring workshops and speakers discussing the best ways of improving literacy skills in young people of all backgrounds.

Another anniversary event will be a fundraising ball held in the Midland Hotel in Bradford on Saturday March 11. There will be auctions during the evening and the screening of a short film to commemorate 20 years of the charity.

To buy a ticket visit readingmatters.org.uk/get-involved/events/reading-matters-charity-ball-2017/