Bringing about a Reading Revolution

The Reader Organisation

SO good luck came, and on my roof did light,Like noiseless snow, or as the dew of night:Not all at once, but gently, as the treesAre, by the sunbeams, tickled by degrees.

Robert Herrick

YMCA - millions

Get Into Reading

Weekly Read aloud Inclusive Focus is on

the book

What is it, and why does it work?

• 1000+ weekly beneficiaries in areas such

as mental health, looked after children, elderly care,

criminal justice, education

• 330 weekly groups coordinated by The Reader

Organisation in through UK, plus sister projects in

Australia, Belgium and Denmark

• 500+ independent shared reading

practitioners trained by The Reader Organisation,

inspired by Get Into Reading project, method and ethos:

Get Into Reading in Numbers

MerseyBEATResearch Study, July 2009 – July 2010

An investigation into the therapeutic effects of reading in relation to depression and well-being.

Funded by Liverpool PCT and the University of Liverpool

Outcomes:Improved mental well-beingIncreased levels of confidenceMore willing to talk and listen to othersIncreased concentrationIncreased levels of motivationAided relaxation & reduced anxiety

“I’d just be sitting at home if I wasn’t here in the reading group. It gets me out and gets me thinking and afterwards I go out of the room still thinking about the poems we’ve read!”

Lucy, group member at Upstairs@83, Bootle

Glasgow Women’s Library

‘Unwind with a Book’

CRILS Evaluation ReportA literature-based intervention for Older People living with

Dementia

Major conclusions

•Quantifiable data and qualitative evidence indicate engagement in reading-group activity produced significant reduction in dementia symptom severity

•Indicative because of small sample size and no control

RecommendationsA literature-based intervention for Older People living with

dementia

•Extended to older care settings

•Project Worker Reports

•Future Research

•Future Training

Ask Me Some time when the river is ice ask memistakes I have made. Ask me whetherwhat I have done is my life. Othershave come in their slow way intomy thought, and some have tried to helpor to hurt – ask me what differencetheir strongest love or hate has made. I will listen to what you say.You and I can turn and lookat the silent river and wait. We knowthe current is there, hidden; and thereare comings and goings from miles awaythat hold the stillness exactly before us.What the river says, that is what I say. William Stafford

Casi DylanLiterary Learning Manager

casidylan@thereader.org.uk