Deb Piper, Head of Regional Operations, talks about our new Reader Connector role and remote coaching plans.
Read Easy exists to give all adults who come to learn to read with us the greatest chance of success – this has to be our primary goal. There is a strong likelihood that this might be the last time an adult will seek support, so we have to get it right.
At Read Easy, our coaching has always been delivered through one-to-one, in-person reading sessions. Clearly, this could not continue during the pandemic and so our very determined volunteers, supported by our staff team, devised various ways to continue to provide coaching using remote methods for those Readers who felt this might work for them. The success of these efforts was largely down to our amazing Read Easy volunteers being willing to support their Coaches and Readers by travelling to meet them (when restrictions allowed and social distancing guidelines could be observed) to change books, present certificates and help solve IT issues, so that everything worked as smoothly as possible. However, particularly in more rural areas, this involved a considerable amount of extra organisation and travelling, and so it could only really be a temporary solution.
Nonetheless, our experience during the pandemic has made us realise how effectively remote coaching could work for many more adults in the future who – for various reasons – would not otherwise be able to access our services. So our solution has been to create a new volunteer role, that of the Reader Connector, to provide local, on the ground support for individual Readers.
The Reader Connector would be an additional Management Team member for a new or existing Read Easy group. They would have various responsibilities. For Readers who do not have any access to the necessary devices or internet at home, the Reader Connector would find venues in local organisations, libraries and community centres which, once approved, Readers could go for their remote coaching sessions. They would welcome the Reader and introduce them to the Venue employees or volunteers, make sure that they felt comfortable using the devices available, help them to get online and meet their Coach. The Reader Connector would provide the Reader with reading manuals and books, and would make sure that they could continue comfortably after the first few sessions, returning to provide continued IT support, encouragement, and additional resources as they are required. And, of course, to present certificates! Similar support could be provided to Readers working from home.
A Read Easy group could have a network of Reader Connectors to enable them to provide successful remote coaching in lots of smaller towns or villages currently outside of their reach. Take an area like Cornwall for instance, where we plan to pioneer a group later this year. There are high population areas across the county, where the existing model for in-person coaching would work. But there are also large and quite remote rural areas to be covered. Using a network of locally-based Reader Connectors, the Read Easy Cornwall group could ensure coaching was available to all in the county without overstretching the group’s team of Coordinators and Management Team volunteers.
The pandemic has undoubtedly brought us many challenges as an organisation, but I am so proud of the way we have pulled together to carry on changing lives. In fact, over the last year Read Easy has actually grown faster than at any other time and I’m confident that remote coaching, supported by Reader Connectors, will allow us to say ‘Yes’ to many more adults who ask for our support. What a privilege!!