Dyslexia Information Day

“Providing events to help further the understanding of dyslexia...”

The first ever Dyslexia Information Day happened on the 24th of May 2008 at Ketley Community centre from 11am tp 3pm.

People, organisations & companies that attended were:

• Parent Partnership
• Shropshire Dyslexia Association
• Telford Dyslexia Workshop
• The Dyslexic Dyslexia Consultant
• Usborne books
• Bookstart
• Telford & Wrekin Library service
• Enabling computers
• Ketley youth club
• Smart Kids

Thanks go to all involved including the volunteers from Telford Dyslexia Workshop who ran the refreshments stall and generated a £77 profit that was donated to the workshop.

Apart from about a thousand flyers and 500ish posters that we printed, a small article in the paper, a few personal invitations we didn't do as much publicity as we would have liked for the event and consequently spent the night before the DID panicking! Especially as it was the Saturday of the bank holiday … we had decided that if we managed to help one family and one adult then it would have all been worth it.

On the day every one was set up and ready to go we had given our thanks to every one who had turned up and offered their assistance on the day when no sooner had we finished ready to open the front door to the public our very first customer appeared… a lady from the probation service who had seen the banner outside so popped in to find out why she hadn't heard about the day and to tell us to come and do one in wellington! And from there it didn’t stop! We had over 130 people attend the day, including families, teachers, classroom assistants & individuals. It was great, with in the first 15 minutes Sue had bought over a feedback comment for me to read which was;

'...I still don’t know if my daughter is dyslexic, but I now know where to go to find out... Thank you so much...'

Within 15 minutes our first goal had been reached! We needn’t have panicked the evening before as we were busy and people were enjoying it. By the end of the day, when we read through the comments and feedback sheet we realised that we had surpassed our expectations and there was a huge demand to hold another one!

Within less than 24 hours of opening the doors to DiD we were planning the next DiD... DiD2!

The event is totallay free and we also hold a free raffle, the prizes at the first DiD included a donated and signed copy of 'Brian has dyslexia' by Jenny Leigh. A set of bath bombs from 'Lush', 1 years free membership for Shropshire Dyslexia Association (SDA) donated by SDA and a box of Thornton's Chocolates!