Chapter One's Online Reading Volunteers (ORV) Programme supports primary school children facing disadvantage in the UK, who struggle with reading and have low reading confidence and enjoyment.

Trained corporate volunteers use our bespoke online platform to give children aged 5 to 8 weekly one-to-one reading sessions across a full academic year. The sessions build reading and communication skills and help children enjoy reading. The goal is for every child to have the same chance to benefit from everything reading offers, so they can thrive in life.

The programme is designed around children, but many volunteers also report a benefit to their own wellbeing and higher overall life satisfaction. We measure that too.

We worked with the social impact measurement organisation Impact Advantage to value the ORV programme's impact and to calculate its social return on investment (SROI), for both students and volunteers.

How we approached the valuation

The programme rests on a large body of strong research showing that helping children early in their reading journey improves their life chances. Children who read are more likely to do better at school - both at the end of primary and the end of secondary - to have more job opportunities and higher lifetime earnings, and to enjoy better health and wellbeing.

Two principles shaped the work:

• We measure from the ‘bottom up’, using each student's and each volunteer's actual change, rather than estimating from the ‘top down’.
• We are deliberately conservative. Where we had a choice, we took the option that understates rather than overstates the value.

These FAQs explain, in plain terms, the methodology behind how the social impact figures in your partner report are produced, what they mean, and how they can be used.

A full, detailed explanation of the methodology is available here.