Connect Realise Change

Today 850,000 people live with dementia.

There are 85,000 people in prisons or young offender institutions.

Over 15,000,000 people will experience a mental health problem this year.

39% of 16 year olds will not achieve a grade C or above in English.

The Reader can help any of these people.

Our unique Shared Reading model reaches across all ages, demographics and settings because it helps people connect with a better understanding of themselves and others which enables them to realise the changes they want to make.

Shared Reading takes place in small groups. A great story or poem is read aloud. We stop and talk about what we have read. There is no need for group members to read aloud, speak or even stay awake – the idea is to create a place where people feel at home. Groups are open to all ages, educational backgrounds and abilities, and are free to attend.

We work across what seem to be widely diverse areas of life. How can the same thing help in a mental-health ward and with 2-year-olds in a private day nursery? Or in a high-security prison and a dementia care home? What connects these places are the people in them, and human experiences those people share. Reading aloud gives all sorts of people access to literature; literature gives people access to powerful language, to thoughts and feelings about what it is to be human. By experiencing these complex meanings with others, people can start to (re)build a better understanding of themselves and the world.

We are not what you might think.

We are not a literacy charity but what we do has raised literacy levels.

We are not a therapy but many people find attending a group therapeutic.

We are not here to give away books but we get books into the hands of people who need them.

dig deep

Mental HealthWe work with CCGs, Public Health bodies, NHS trusts, on wards and in communities. Our work helps people visit the GP less often, improves mood and relaxation and can help people understand themselves or others better.

‘We commission The Reader to deliver Shared Reading across the Trust, which involves training a range of staff, including myself, to run groups. The groups reduce isolation which is a very present concern on wards and in the community. My group is a CAMHS inpatient unit, the children are really quite ill: they can be closed-down and unresponsive but with a couple of weeks of Shared Reading you see them start to open up, show interest, look at the text and maybe offer to read aloud. That’s a rapid, beneficial change. I couldn’t recommend The Reader and Shared Reading enough.’

Simon Barber Chief Executive, 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

I first found out about the group when I was in Windsor House Psychiatric Hospital, I’d been going through a tough time in my life and didn’t think I could cope any more. The Occupational Therapist there encouraged me to attend by telling me that it was a different approach to therapy… that it wasn’t therapy but was therapeutic.

The facilitator who visited the hospital made a real difference to my time there, people were reading and talking, reading and talking and something moved every person there, we all related to the story The Street that got Mislaid, by Patricia Waddington, in their own way. When I was discharged she (the facilitator made sure that the leaflets about groups all over Liverpool were with my discharge papers. I plucked up the courage four weeks later to attend a group in the Library and was blown away with how the group and staff welcomed me like I’d always been there.

This group has been a lifeline for me. I escape everyday pressures for a few hours every week and I’d be lost without it.

83% report that reading improves their mood.

EducationWe have worked with young people in both primary and secondary schools for over 10 years Our work focuses on creating a culture of reading for pleasure in schools which helps to raise educational attainment as well as boosting wellbeing.

‘Training with The Reader has transformed the involvement of parents and carers as well as raising levels of confidence in reading and developing an enjoyment of books in our school community.’

Marguerite YoungShared Reading group leader at Whitefields Primary, the School with the most value added from KS1-2 in reading out of all primary schools in England, 2015.

Your Reader, Lucy, worked with my Year 9 group and I have noticed huge improvements in both their attitude to reading and their enjoyment of it too. The students were always eager to go and work with Lucy and I noticed that one student in particular secured a level 5 when she came in on a level 3; I am confident that Lucy’s input has influenced this achievement. The relationships forged with the girls were exemplary and after each session they would show me what they had achieved and tell me all about the books they had been reading. The biggest achievement from the scheme for me has been breaking down the barriers between low ability students with poor literacy skills and actually finding a good book to read and enjoy! I can honestly say that having it has had a huge impact on the girls’ relationship with reading but has helped them in more ways than just enjoying literature.

Chrissie WaltonEnglish teacher, Weatherhead High School, Wirral

94% of young people read more after participating in a weekly reading group.

96% of young people feel more confident reading aloud.

80% of teachers feel more able to inspire their pupils to read for pleasure after taking part in our CPD.

DementiaWe work with people living with dementia in care homes and in the community. We work with the NHS and with private care providers, including BUPA, either running groups with our own staff or by training staff and volunteers at the host organisation. We have trained and support over 300 volunteers to deliver one-to-one Shared Reading sessions in care homes across the North West and many more around the UK.

‘The Reader has developed an incredible project for us that has changed the lives of many people in Wiltshire living with dementia and those who care for them. Their vision to share literature and in doing so enable people to change the way they feel about themselves and their lives is inspirational.’

Rebecca Bolton Outreach Services Manager, Wiltshire Libraries

Alice’s dementia is advanced and affects her speech. She talks in a ‘made up’ language, and only occasionally says words that others can understand.

I had always assumed she wasn’t getting much from the poetry, but one day she held up the poem to me and shook her head – I realised that I’d given her the wrong poem, and that she was aware that she was unable to follow along. I gave her the right poem, and she raised her voice, read out the title (fluently) and began to read the poem to the whole group. A lot of her words were incomprehensible, but occasionally she would read a line or a word correctly, and it was clear that she was following through it systematically.

When she started reading, some members of the group tutted and muttered to themselves. When it became clear that the activities coordinator and I were listening, the group gradually sat in silence. At the end of the reading she got a round of applause from the group. She has done the same thing a couple of times since – making me realise that although she can’t communicate, she is very aware of where she is in the group, and enjoys being there.

Criminal Justice‘Shared Reading is integral to sentence planning. There are other interventions that are more peripheral, but Shared Reading addresses risk related behaviours. It’s part of risk reduction.’

Clinical LeadWestgate, HMP Frankland

I find the reading group relaxing and less formal than a structured session, that can sometimes be perceived as quite clinical. The reading group draws me because of its power to transport me outside the confines of my everyday world.

To spend an hour in the world of literature seems to have a cathartic effect upon me and I have noticed the effect the session has on my fellow readers. It seems to engender a more open and receptive atmosphere where one feels in a safe place to speak honestly and openly. This must have something to do with ‘revealing’ what a written piece means to you and listening to others’ perceptions of the same piece.

Whatever it is, the reading group provides the opportunity to socialise in a realm that seems somehow different from other activities. It is almost as if literature somehow ‘raises the bar’ and leaves the reader feeling like an explorer of a different world, or at least being privileged to have glimpsed into another realm that is ‘otherworldly’.

The group’s overall relaxed and soothing atmosphere seems to draw me near and fill some sort of need in me I did not know was there.

From a group member at HMP Frankland

48% of group members had shown improvement in Openness to future non-offending and aspiration since joining a Shared Reading group.

How can The Reader help you? Our Shared Reading model can be delivered in three ways each tailored to suit the specific people we are going to read with.

We can train people to lead Shared Reading. We have trained more than 4,000 people since we launched our training courses in 2008.

Training and management of volunteers

A fantastic way to reach a large number of people cost effectively. Our staff can take responsibility for recruiting, training, placing and supporting volunteers to deliver Shared Reading. We have done this in care homes, in libraries, within families and in schools.

Training and quality assurance of staff members

The benefits of getting staff to lead Shared Reading has the added bonus of giving the organisation a tool to improve their culture alongside the benefits to those attending groups.

The approach can reach huge numbers and can be more stable than volunteers provided there is sufficient support with the organisation. We can help build that support using a reader in residence model where one of our staff works within the organisation building up support and encouraging staff to make the most of the training and quality assurance we provide.

Sometimes you need our expert Readers

Sometimes staff don’t have time or space to take an extra responsibility. Sometimes a volunteer isn’t the appropriate person to bring in. On these occasions, or when a high intensity intervention of the highest quality is needed, then bringing in one of our Readers to run the groups is the best approach. Our Readers have a long and successful history of working in some of the most demanding places and with some of the hardest to reach people.

Our lives improve

only when we take

chances – and the first

and most difficult risk

we can take is to be

honest with ourselves.

Walter Anderson

Realise a change is needed?

Get reading.

Speak to us on:0151 729 2200

Email us at:info@thereader.org.uk

Online:thereader.org.uk

Write to us at:Calderstones MansionCalderstones ParkLiverpoolL18 3JB

Charity number: 1126806 (Scotland 043054)