Hull and East Yorkshire (HEY) Children’s University and Northern Gas Networks have teamed up on an exciting new project which will help inspire a love of reading for children living in the Care System.
Friday 12th November saw the official launch of the van at Bridlington Spa in the presence of VIP guests.
Northern Gas Networks has been one of the charity's corporate partners for the past 8 years and has been instrumental in helping the charity to grow and reach a greater number of children.
HEY Children’s University applied for Northern Gas Networks’ Vulnerability and Carbon Monoxide Allowance funding, which is provided by Ofgem for all gas distribution networks.
Their proposal was to fund a reading camper van which would solve the problem of limited 1:1 reading space in some schools. HEY Children’s University delivers a reading intervention programme called the Letterbox Club in which children in care receive a monthly letterbox parcel filled with books.
The HEY Children’s University Letterbox Tutors visit the children at their school and hold reading sessions with the children to help them to progress and develop a love of reading. The tutors work specifically with looked after children in year groups 3 to 7 and visit them on a weekly basis. Sometimes it can be difficult to find a quiet spot to sit and read inside school when there are many distractions, so the van (kitted out as a perfect “reading corner”) provides a space to do this. The children can even choose to read outside the van on one of the beanbags!
The van will also be used for HEY Children’s University to deliver carbon monoxide awareness sessions in school.
