Andrew Mitchell MP for Royal Sutton Coldfield, met with BookTrust, the UK’s largest children’s reading charity on Friday 8th of December. They discussed the work BookTrust does in Birmingham, the value of BookTrust programmes to families across his community and the importance of early years reading.
BookTrust will deliver over £659,000 worth of resources across Birmingham in 2017/18, gifting 16000 families of new babies and 16000 families of toddlers with a Bookstart Baby and Treasure pack.
Andrew Mitchell MP said: “I was here to meet with BookTrust and hear more about their work in the Royal Town. It is vitally important that children and families are given the chance to love reading from the earliest age.’
Diana Gerald, CEO of BookTrust, said: “We are pleased Andrew is committed to getting children in his community reading for pleasure. Evidence shows that those children who read for pleasure do better in life. Andrew’s support will enable us to keep inspiring a love of reading and transforming lives.”
Oliver Coppard, Head of English Regions at BookTrust, said: “We reach every child in Sutton Coldfield through our Baby and Treasure programmes, giving babies and toddlers high quality books and reading materials and the chance to learn to love reading, but we couldn’t do that vital work without the support of the community, local libraries and people like Andrew.
West Midlands Mayor Andy Street is to meet with Oliver Coppard to learn about and support the important work that BookTrust does across the West Midlands and the whole of the UK. 1 in 8 disadvantaged children do not own a single book. BookTrust aim to fix this by getting children across Birmingham and the West Midlands reading, through their many programmes tackling children’s illiteracy.