This year, Lubbock Fine will be supporting Doorstep Library as our Charity of the Year. This is a community-focussed charity dedicated to spreading the joy of reading into the homes of children across London who need literacy support.
In what has become a much-cherished tradition, the staff at Lubbock Fine each year nominate and then choose a worthy cause to support. Our past partners vary from Brain Tumour Research to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and, most recently, FoodCycle.
This year, however, our charity team’s fundraising and volunteering efforts will support Doorstep Library to spread a love of books, and to develop the reading skills of young, disadvantaged children across London. In some areas, one in four 11-year-olds leave primary education unable to read or write properly. If left unchecked this “functional illiteracy” in young adults is directly linked to fewer employment opportunities and poverty.
Doorstep Library’s trained volunteers, in person, online or by post, lend books, read stories or assist children to read and in so doing, connect families to their local communities through the power of words. Improved reading and writing skills not only help these children as they progress through school but also gives them added confidence.
With 15 on-the-ground projects across 4 London boroughs, Doorstep Library visits 600 children and 300 families with a team of over 130 volunteers, the impact on these young people’s lives cannot be over-estimated.
Molly Norris from our CSR Committee said: “We’re delighted to continue our annual Staff Charity of the Year initiative led by our Lubbock Fine CSR team. We’re excited to be working with Doorstep Library this year, supporting their goal to develop reading skills and improve the literacy of disadvantaged children, and to spread the joy of reading across the London boroughs.”
Katie, Bareham, CEO at Doorstep Library said: "We are very excited to be partnering with Lubbock Fine to raise funds for our shared-reading work with children in London."
According to Unesco, the biggest single indicator of whether a child is going to thrive at school and in work is whether or not they read for pleasure. That is what Doorstep Library is all about – supporting children experiencing disadvantage to become keen and confident readers.
We will be cheering on the staff at Lubbock Fine as they work their hardest to raise funds for this genuinely transformative work."