Words by Smiley Team
In 2016, headteacher Elisabeth and her husband David Carney-Haworth OBE (pictured) came up with the idea of pairing isolated elderly people with children who wanted to read to them. After introducing the initiative to her school in Cornwall, she expanded it across the whole of the UK, drawing in progressively more readers and listeners. This month Smiley™ is proud to have donated nearly £10,000 to support the charity that evolved from the project, Silver Stories.
Tackling loneliness among the elderly while helping children develop their reading skills, Silver Stories benefits over 150 Silver Listeners (the children) and a similar number of Silver Readers (elderly people).
“Originally we created Silver Stories because there are large numbers in the elderly community who are lonely,” Carney-Haworth explained. “They may go out to the shops and to the post office but a lot of them have lost touch with grandchildren and younger people. So we wanted to address that feeling of isolation they may have as a result.
“In terms of the children, the original idea was for them to be able to read. Usually, when a child reads it’s to a teacher, where they’re corrected all the time. So we wanted to allow them to do that without constant judgement.”
With the onset of the pandemic, isolation became an increasing issue which Silver Stories continues to combat over the phone.
“All people need is a comfy chair to sit in, a telephone and five minutes spare,” explained Carney-Haworth.
The charity is run by Elisabeth with her husband David. As a testament to their hard work, the pair were nominated for the Prime Minister’s Points of Lights award last summer for their voluntary work driving positive change.
Together they have created a community of readers and listeners, strengthening the relationship between the generations.
Among those benefitting from the project is one child with dyslexia whose mother contacted the couple to express her gratitude after her son finished his very first chapter book. Another Silver Reader partnered with an ex-English teacher, enjoys a ‘poem-off’ in their reading sessions. They each pick a poem to recite to one another, after which they decide who performed best and who chose the most interesting poem.
Moving forward, the Carney-Haworths would love to offer more children the chance to read by providing books for deprived families. But this is difficult to do on such a large scale. So they hope to partner with a children’s publisher to deliver books for the young people participating in the project, aged 3 to 14. If you work for a publishing company that might be able to help, please get in touch with them via their online contact form.
To get involved as a reader or listener, or to make a donation to Silver Stories please get in touch here.
All donations will cover essential costs and help deliver the project to more elderly people and children. Once they’ve acquired enough funding, they intend to create a welcome pack for new participants and schools, as well as a video to introduce people to the project and promote their work.
