Words and Numbers Matter Charity can count on £40,000 foundation funding

Wednesday 23 September 2015

One of Jersey’s newest charities dedicated to helping people of all ages with basic literacy and numeracy skills has been awarded vital funding for two years from the Lloyds Bank Foundation in the Channel Islands

Although established less than two years ago, Words and Numbers Matter already has more than 120 people, many of them schoolchildren, benefiting from one-to-one lessons in English and Maths.

Many clients are schoolchildren with anxiety, lack of confidence, dyslexia, dyscalculia, or other learning obstacles, or where English is not their first language, requiring extra tuition to supplement their normal school day or in the build up to examinations. The work of the charity extends towards many adults who are benefiting from the tuition as well.

Words and Numbers Matter has established its own dedicated classroom and offices in St Saviour’s Road and also stages a weekly evening session for more than 20 of its clients at the Jersey Library. Many students receive one-to-one tuition and the charity has trained an extensive team of volunteers, currently numbering more than 30, to support learning under the guidance of a facilitator.

The grant awarded by the Foundation, £20,000 this year and a further £20,000 in 2016, will be used to fund the salary of the charity’s administrator/teacher and to help meet the rental costs for their classroom.

Words and Numbers Matter, which was founded by Sally Gallichan in November 2013, quickly established itself as a vital resource for many who struggled with reading and basic numeracy skills. For those young people at school, the one-to-one tuition that the charity is providing cannot be replicated during the normal school day and for adults also, the charity has revived in them a belief that they can learn successfully.  Demand soon grew and Sally recruited Fee Morris as a full time administrator. Today, the charity is providing free lessons to more than 120 clients of all ages with varying abilities, beginning as young as five and up to the age of 50 and over.

Mrs Gallichan said: "We are so grateful to the Foundation for the grant which essentially means we can focus more of our time on providing valuable time helping others to achieve. For the next two years we can concentrate 100 per cent on providing lessons where they are most needed and continue expanding our services to more people."

John Hutchins, Executive Director, Lloyds Bank Foundation in the Channel Islands said: “After seeing first-hand what Words and Numbers Matter has managed to achieve for those who experience severe literacy issues the Foundation was delighted to have been in a position to assist the charity. “