The Estée Lauder Companies UK & Ireland has signed The National Literacy Trust’s Vision for Literacy Business Pledge 2020.
The move is part of the beauty group’s continued commitment to promoting literacy and upward social mobility in the UK.
The Vision for Literacy Business Pledge 2020 is a project by independent charity The National Literacy Trust, which works to raise children’s literacy levels. The project aims to emphasise the importance of the business sector in helping their local communities through practical support, volunteering, events, and sponsorship.
“It’s estimated that nearly 800,000 children in the UK do not have a book of their own at home. As a company, we are taking action to address this issue and help children acquire the necessary literacy skills they need to improve their educational attainment and ultimately increase the likelihood of upward social mobility.” — The Estée Lauder Companies UK & Ireland Vice President Corporate Affairs Anne Bartle
In the last year alone, The Estée Lauder Companies UK & Ireland has donated over 6,000 books, which directly benefited over 1,000 children through its partnership with United Way’s Reading Oasis programme.
The literacy charity aims to ‘give every child the opportunity to learn to love reading,’ and builds dedicated reading spaces in primary schools in disadvantaged communities. The company’s partnership with United Way also supports the charity’s ‘Reading Buddies’ initiative, through one-off library building and monthly group reading events.
In addition to this, The Estée Lauder Companies also launched a pre-Christmas company book donation campaign across its offices in the UK and Ireland. The campaign collected hundreds of books for the London’s Children’s Books Project, which donates new and lightly used books to children and families across the country.
“The art of storytelling is part of our company’s heritage,” said The Estée Lauder Companies Senior Vice President/General Manager UK & Ireland Sue Fox. “Having the opportunity to listen to or read wonderful stories that heighten the imagination and vocabulary is something that I believe is a gift that every child in all communities should benefit from.”
Fox added: “We know that this is not possible for all children so funding new libraries in primary schools, donating books and providing volunteering opportunities for our employees to read to children will hopefully give the joy of storytelling to many more children and families around the country.”
For The Estée Lauder Companies UK & Ireland Vice President Corporate Affairs Anne Bartle, the company’s support of the Literacy Business Pledge 2020 aims to increase upward social mobility in the UK.
She said: “It’s estimated that nearly 800,000 children in the UK do not have a book of their own at home. We are taking action to address this issue and help children acquire the necessary literacy skills they need to improve their educational attainment and ultimately increase the likelihood of upward social mobility.”