Link up - Introduction

Link Up is a pilot project aiming to recruit 6000 adult learner supporters to help adults to improve their literacy, numeracy and language skills. The project has both strong educational and community purposes. This is reflected in its sources of funding and range of partners. The project is funded by the Department for Education and Skills and the Home Office and managed by the Basic Skills Agency. It forms part of the Skills for Life strategy. Link Up works closely with its partners including Birmingham Core Skills Partnership, Groundwork and The Prince's Trust. These organisations bring their varying expertise to the project giving it a wide range of experience and knowledge to draw upon.

Projects around the country

There are 18 projects around the country, two in the prison service and one in the Army. These pilot locations encompass urban, rural and seaside settings and have specific areas of need. A local organisation runs each project; these include educational institutions, voluntary organisations and community groups. Projects use their local knowledge to recruit a diverse range of supporters to reflect their communities. The aim is that 25% of supporters will be over 50 and 50% will come from target wards in the indices of deprivation.

Link Up hopes to increase formal volunteering within communities where there is little history of it. The pilot districts are Blackburn, St Helens, Middlesbrough, Stockton on Tees, Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Leicester, Derby City, Brent, Camden, Barnsley, Sheffield, Plymouth, Penwith, Thanet, Isle of Wight, Basildon and Great Yarmouth. There are prison clusters in the North East and the North West whilst the Army project consists of three bases, one in Germany.

Many projects have enjoyed great successes so far, including Link Up Stockton and Middlesbrough. The project is run by Stockton Voluntary Development Agency and staffed by keen and knowledgeable people who saw Link Up as an opportunity to "bring the project into the community, to offer training in that setting and to offer new opportunities to people within that community." There are already 437 Link Up supporters registered in Link Up Stockton and Middlesbrough. The project has recruited 2430 over the country as a whole.

In Stockton and Middlesbrough the project has been promoted to potential supporters in a variety of ways. The local paper has followed their fortunes closely including their successful launch with its bus full of gremlins. Specific events have targeted various parts of the community. Especially well received were the evenings with international dance troupes, food and fun. People came along to enjoy the event and find out a bit more about Link Up. All projects have used posters, leaflets, newspaper adverts and radio adverts to attract supporters. Most projects have found that their best recruitment tools are existing supporters who have enjoyed their training and so spread the word.

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