Become part of the READ team at Sixth Form or College!

Our Young Leaders programme, powered by vinspired aims to create a national network of young, active global citizens in secondary schools in England. Young people in Year 12 and Year 13 will lead a social enterprise community project collecting disused books from their schools and local communities. They fundraise to cover the costs of sending the books to under resourced schools in East Africa. The Youth Leaders are mentored by our student volunteers who are involved in regional Book Projects, based at local universities. Youth Leaders also have the opportunity to enter our competition to win a fully paid trip to Tanzania to participate in our GAP year library renovation programme (winners must be 18 years old when they visit Tanzania) and to receive accreditation for their volunteering hours from vinspired.

Why?

East Africa: Students in Tanzania and Uganda often share 1 book between 9 and lack the educational resources needed for a quality education.  Yet in the UK schools often have to dispose of good quality books due to syllabus changes.  So far READ has diverted over 1000 tonnes of books from UK landfills and has persoanlly delivered over 1 million of the best quality and most relevant to the East African schools that need them most.

UK: A 2011 survey by the Confederation of British Industry found that 55% of employers experienced weakness in school leavers' self-management skills (time management, organisation, project management) and 70% wanted to see employability skills being developed at school or college.  

Click here for further details about the Young Leaders Programme.

Please read our FAQs before you register your interest - places are limited!

This project is a perfect opportunity to develop key employability skills for UCAS forms and job applications whilst supporting students in East Africa and taking part in a nationwide movement for social change!

But dont just take our word for it, find out from our current Young Leaders what the project is all about: