Councillor's 'day without words'

Councillor Keith Swift with Heywood's visitors

A Rochdale Councillor is taking part in a ‘day without words’ today (Thursday 28 October 2010) in a bid to raise awareness of literacy.

The day is a National Literacy Trust initiative that asks supporters to imagine what their lives would be like if they were unable to communicate effectively.

Councillor Keith Swift, Cabinet Member for Skills and Economic Recovery will attend meetings in which he will need to contribute but he won’t be able to speak and will therefore have to find other ways of getting his message across.

Councillor Swift, Cabinet Member for Skills & Economic Recovery said: “Literacy is the most important of skills. It’s not just an ability that can be used at work, it opens up so many life chances for people. To not have the ability to speak, listen, read or write at a good level really impacts on people’s lives and it’s fantastic that we have so many people providing their time and energy to help others develop these skills.”

Councillor Swifts ‘day without words’ links in with the visit of two senior colleagues from the national literacy trust along with colleagues from other local authorities who are visiting Heywood to look at the Literacy Champions Training programme being delivered.

The programme turns local residents into Literacy Champions who can then support others who struggle with reading, writing, speaking or listening.

The visitors coming to Heywood this week are part of a national pilot project “Partners in Literacy” which is coordinated through the National Literacy Trust.

Heywood’s Literacy Champions programme is the first of its type nationally and the visitors are coming to join the training with a view to rolling this out in other local authority areas.

If anyone wants to volunteer to become a Literacy Champion, they can register through the volunteer centre at CVS or for further information can contact the Economic Affairs Team on 01706 925925.