GIR Manchester Showcase Booklet

8/14/2019 GIR Manchester Showcase Booklet

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Get Into Reading Showcase

Manchester

Bringing about a Reading Revolution...


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Get Into Reading trainee facilitators at Burton Manor, with Director of The Reader Organisation, Jane Davis

(right, front) and below, trainees in the grounds of Burton Manor, the home of our accredited training course


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Contents

Introduction 2

What is Get Into Reading? 3

Case Study: Helens story 4

Conference Speakers 5

The Speeches

Blake Morrison The Reading Cure 7

Louis Appleby How Reading is Good for Your Mental Health 12

Get Into Reading: Salford 17

Read to Lead Training 18

Contact Us 20

Contents

Contents

Books enable us better to enjoy life,

or better to endure itSamuel Johnson - 1 -


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Introduction

The event highlighted the work of Get Into Reading in Merseyside and Salford, to gain

further knowledge and understanding of the project and to explore the potential for further

development of this initiative across Greater Manchester.

The Conference Aims were:

To showcase the work of established Get Into Reading initiatives in Merseyside and

Salford;

To raise awareness and demonstrate the benefits of Get Into Reading for health and

social care providers;

To demonstrate the benefits of multi-agency partnerships for libraries; how Get Into

Reading groups bring value-added work to libraries and other organisations;

To establish links between library managers, other statutory bodies, health and social

care professionals and other relevant parties, e.g. voluntary sector and arts outreach

workers, in order to develop the Get Into Reading project;

To secure support from interested parties and commissioners to support the launch

of a Get Into Reading initiative within Greater Manchester.

The conference was aimed at:

Senior Library Managers

Senior PCT Commissioners

Senior Health Service Practitioners

Strategic Health Service Managers

Senior Health Charity Managers

Strategic Arts and Cultural Officers

Introduction

The Get Into Reading Showcase was held in the Reception Rooms in Manchester TownHall on Tuesday 21st October 2008. Three partner organisations The Reader

Organisation, Time to Read and Arts About Manchester collaborated, with support

from the National Year of Reading 2008 and Arts Council England, to deliver a high-

profile one-day conference to promote the Get Into Reading creative reading project.

Introduction

Get Into Reading is exactly the kind of work the NHS

should be developing in the next ten yearsProfessor Louis Appleby - 2 -


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What is Get Into Reading?

Its like another door has opened and the light has come in.Get Into Reading member, Wirral

Whats different about these groups is that short stories, novels and poems are read aloud

by one of our trained facilitators members can choose to join in, but theres no pressure

to. This provides immediate engagement with the text, which is enriched by the

spontaneous sharing of life stories and experiences as confidence builds over time. The

groups meet week-in-week-out, providing valuable structure and support. Both of these

elements are integral to the success of Get Into Reading.

Get Into Reading

Get Into Reading

Its like massagefor the mind

Carer, Burnley Central Library

The Reader Organisations pioneering social outreach project Get Into Reading currently

delivers over 120 regular community reading groups, reaching more than 600 people each

week across the North West. Groups meet in community centres, libraries, homeless

shelters, schools, hospitals, drug rehab units and care homes to enjoy great books and

poems together.

- 3 -


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Case Study: Helens story

Helen is in her thirties and when she first

arrived at the Get Into Reading group she

was visibly shaking, couldnt make eye

contact with anyone and couldnt talk to

the other people in the group. If anything

even remotely connected with the idea of

death came up in whatever text they were

reading, she had to leave the room.

Nevertheless, she continued to attend,rarely missing a session and it was clear

that she valued the group highly.

Helen eventually revealed that attending

the Get Into Reading group was actually

the first thing shed been able to come out

to independently for 18 months, since the

death of her mother. Before her mothers

death, she had suffered with depression for

several years and had eventually had amajor breakdown. She was given

medication and several courses of therapy,

lasting 16 months in total, but feels that

she only really began to improve when she

joined her Get Into Reading group. This

was a safe haven, where she was allowed

to remain quiet for as long as she liked, but

gradually, over the course of a year, she

began to join in, improving to the pointwhere she was eventually able to join in a

50-strong Get Into Reading members

coach trip to Manchester Royal Exchange

to see Pete Postlethwaite in The Tempest.

Her rising confidence levels also allowed

her to take on a few hours voluntary work

at a local Oxfam shop.

Helen is now about to return to

employment, after six years of being unableto work. She has just been on holiday with

her husband to Sorrento. They travelled by

planesomething she wouldnt have been

able to contemplate a year ago.

Before joining her GIR group, Helen hadnt

read for three or four years because of

concentration problems. She says the fact

that the group was local in her

immediate community helped, and also

that the group was small. She liked the

quiet, gentle atmosphere and the fact that

there was absolutely no pressure to join in

it immediately felt therapeutic. As she

puts it: The group gives you maximum

pleasurein both the people and the book

youre readingwith minimum stress.

The knowledge that you dont have to do

anything is very important, but then trust

begins to build and youre able to share

personal feelings with the group, so that

they end up knowing more about you than

friends youve known for years. You can

say what you want and you know theyll

understand.

Case Study

Case Study

You can say what you want and you know

theyll understandHelen - 4 -


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Conference Speakers

Professor Louis Appleby

NHS Director for Mental Health and Professor of Psychiatry, University of Manchester

Professor Louis Appleby has played a central role in plans to reform mental health services

as part of the Governments NHS Plan, bringing in a range of new services including home

treatment, early intervention and assertive outreach teams, and mental health legislation.

He has led numerous initiatives looking at reducing suicides and improving the physical

environment of mental health wards. Since 1996 he has been Professor of Psychiatry at the

University of Manchester and since 1991 a consultant psychiatrist in Manchester. He was

awarded a CBE for services to medicine in the 2006 New Year Honours.

Jane Davis

Founder and Director, The Reader Organisation

Dr Jane Davis left school at 16 with 2 O-Levels and became a single mother at 18 before

returning to education in her twenties. In 1997, after several years teaching literature

courses in the University of Liverpools Continuing Education department, she founded The

Reader magazine. The magazine has grown organically into The Reader Organisation, a

charity which aims to bring about a Reading Revolution. She works enthusiasticallyto develop new projects and to build on the success of Get Into Reading Merseyside,

engaging and inspiring Primary Care Trusts, libraries, Mental Health trusts, the Criminal

Justice service, Social Care services and other local authorities across the country to create

infrastructures for the project. She holds on tight to her vision to make the serious pleasure

of literature available, in many different ways, to as many people as possible.

Jane Mathieson

Regional Reader Development Co-ordinator, Northwest

Jane Mathieson co-ordinates a regional partnership of reader development practitioners

working in public libraries across NW England. The partnership, called Time To Read,

exists specifically to share information and good practice in developing the audience for

reading across the region. Time To Read develops promotions with the aim of encouraging

people to read more and borrow more from public libraries. It works to improve the skills

of library staff and brokers reading partnerships. Jane has worked with The Reader

Organisation for a number of years, particularly on the Liverpool Reads project, and until

recently was on the Board of Trustees.

Conference Speakers

Conference Speakers

The reading group mends holes in the net you

would otherwise fall throughGIR member, Birkenhead - 5 -


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Tom McDonald

Former Director of Joint Commissioning (PCT) & Deputy Director of Community, Health

and Social Care, Salford

Sarah Spence

Libraries and Information Service Manager, Salford

Blake Morrison

Author, journalist and bibliotherapy advocate

Blake Morrison is a poet, novelist and journalist, best known for his two memoirsAnd When

Did You Last See Your Father?and Things my Mother Never Told Me. Born in Yorkshire, he now

lives in London, where he writes regularly for the Guardian and is Professor of Creative

Writing at Goldsmiths College. He is Chair of The Reader Organisations Board of Trustees.

Ivan Wadeson

Chief Executive, Arts About Manchester

Arts About Manchester is the audience development agency for Greater Manchester,

working with nearly fifty arts organisations to develop audiences for the arts by delivering

marketing services, research and strategic and collaborative projects. Ivans role focuses on

business planning and strategic development of the organisation and the team; partnership

development; management of relations with funders and key stakeholders; and advocacy and

representation. Ivan had worked extensively in theatres and arts centres including

Liverpool Playhouse, Sadler's Wells (London) and the Royal Exchange Theatre (Manchester)

before taking his current role at Arts About Manchester in 2003. He is on the Boards of

the Everyman and Playhouse theatres in Liverpool, and Network, the national network of

audience development agencies.

Honor Wilson-Fletcher

Director, 2008 National Year of Reading

Following a degree in English and History at Goldsmiths College, Honor Wilson-Fletcherworked with a succession of booksellers and publishers in a variety of roles as bookseller

at both Books Etc and Waterstones, as Head of PR at Waterstones, Associate Publisher at

Transworld, Sales and Marketing Director at Hodder Childrens Books and in both sales and

marketing roles at Penguin. She also had a stint online with BOL.com, before joining the

British Museum as Head of Marketing. Prior to joining the National Year of Reading she was

Director of Marketing at the Southbank Centre working on the re-launch of Royal Festival

Hall and the reinvigoration of the whole Southbank Centre site.

Conference Speakers

Conference Speakers

Get Into Readings like going on holiday

without packing your bagsFull-time Carer - 6 -


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The Speeches

Blake Morrison: The Reading Cure

When we talk about the reading cure we

have to be realistic: we cant cure

everything. There are some illnesses, someviruses, that no amount of reading can ever

heal. I make that point because I like to be

above the idea that The Reading Cure and

bibliotherapy are somehow alternative

and new-age: thats not how I see it. Im

the son of two GPs in the north of

England; both of them are hard-headed

pragmatists who believe, and so do I, in the

advances of modern medicine penicillin,antibiotics, stem cell research, everything.

But the body is not law unto itself, its not

entirely distinct from the mind.

We know that some physical ailments are

linked to the mind and we know that

peoples ability to cope with illness is often

connected to their sense of who they are

and where theyre at. We know that

isolation, depression and a lack of self-

esteem can be crippling and disabling. By

contrast, confidence, a sense of belonging

and the ability to express oneself are

positive attributes that can be good for

ones sense of wellbeing and health. Thats

where I feel that books have a part to play.

I dont mean anything so crude as the

transformation overnight from a sick

person into a healthy one, but something

more gradual, more complex, where a

persons emotional, physical andpsychological development and progress

are linked by their immersion in books and

reading they engage with and the people

around them.

When I came up to see Jane Daviss work

last year and wrote The Reading Cure

article in the Guardian, which she probably

doesnt thank me for really(!), I talked to avariety of people, and one of them,

somebody who works with Jane, Kate

McDonnell, said to me, Reading pushes

the pain away to a place where it no longer

seems important. No matter how ill you

are theres a world inside books which you

can enter and explore, and where you

focus on something other than your own

problems. You get to talk about things that

people usually skate over like ageing or

death and that kind of conversation with

everyone chipping in, so you feel part of

something, something that can be

enormously helpful.

Other members of Get Into Reading

groups that I spoke to said: Ive stopped

seeing the doctor since I came here, Ive

We have transcribed two keynote speeches from the Get Into Reading Showcase eventso that those who were unable to attend the event can get a sense of the dialogue and togain some useful insight into the world of reading and health. If you were fortunateenough to attend, then heres a chance to refresh your memories and be re-inspired!

The Speeches

The Speeches

Its relaxed you can be yourself. You can just sit

there and be yourselfGIR member, Wallase - 7 -


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cut down on medication; a lady who had

breast cancer said, Being in a group of

other women who have what I have didnt

help me but talking about books made a

huge difference; and then someone else

said, The reading group mends holes in

the net you would otherwise fall through.

Theyre all I think interesting insights into

what books, what reading can do.

Raymond Tallis, professor of Geriatric

Medicine at the University of Manchester,

whom I also talked to about the

therapeutic benefits of such reading

groups, was a bit doubtful about some of

the research thats been done in the field

of arts as therapy but did tell me about an

old colleague of his who had been

enormously helped in his last weeks of life,

when he was hooked up to a diamorphine

pump, by reading War and Peace as he lay

there. On how reading could be

therapeutic, Tallis said that reading

provides the pleasure of escape into a

parallel world, the sense of control one has

as a reader, and the ability to distance

oneself from ones own circumstances by

seeing them from the outside, suffered by

someone else and gathered up into a nicely

worked-out plot. Somewhere in there

you sense a notion of the Aristotelian

catharsis, the cure. So, I think there is

evidence here of things happening.

D. H. Lawrence, after writing Sons and

Lovers, said, One sheds one sicknesses in

books and that reading repeats and

presents again ones emotions to be

master of them. Shedding your sicknessesin books leads me to think of Ted Hughes,

who talked about how poetry poetry in

particular because that was important for

himcould be an exploration of things we

dont actually want to say but desperately

need to share. So the reading group

becomes an occasion for saying things that

are perhaps difficult in a normal social

discourse. In his last years, Ted Hughesbecame quite convinced about poetry as

therapy, defining poetry as nothing more

than a facility for expressing that

complicated process in which we locate

and attempt to heal a fiction, whether our

own, or that of others whose spiels we can

share; in other words, the inmost spirit of

poetry is at the bottom in every recorded

case, the voice of pain, and the physical

body so to speak of poetry is the

treatment by which the poet tries to

reconcile that pain with the world.

I used to be a bit sceptical about the idea

of writing books as therapy, about

creating as therapy. You could say that

creating is different from sitting around

reading a book, couldnt you? But I think

Blake Morrison

The reading group becomes an occasion for saying

things that are perhaps difficult in a normal social

discourse. - 8 -

Blake Morrison


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the two processes are very similar in many

ways. I think Proust I confess to not

having read the whole of Proust but I did

notice something once described the

book as a sort of optical instrument the

writer offers to the reader to enable the

latter to discover in himself what he would

not have found but for the aid of the

book.

The book becomes a sort of optical

instrument, or its a mirror in which we

see our own reflection or something thatsgoing on in our own lives; or its the

process that the schoolteacher in Alan

Bennetts The History Boys talks about when

he says how, in the presence of great

literature or poetry, its as if a hand has

come out and taken yours.

If youre feeling quite isolated in what

youre experiencing and have been thinkingabout, you can suddenly realise somebody

else has thought and felt this and theyve

expressed it in poetry or prose, and you

feel somehow affirmed in your sense of the

world and yourself. I think we locate

ourselves in the work of others in that way

and that active reading is not unlike writing

in some ways: it certainly can be

therapeutic. Im talking about self-help

through literature. I am sceptical about

overtly self-help books. Im sure they have

a part to play but one of the things I like

about the Get Into Reading scheme is the

sense that were dealing with classics,

were dealing with serious works of

literature, these arent just feel-good

books, theyre not full of psycho-babble,

theyre not pamphlets, theyre not medical

textbooks: they are novels and poems.

Often these great pieces of literature are

dealing with very difficult and painful

experiences, which I can see is a challenge

to those of us, say, dealing with people

who are in pain, whether its mental or

physical, and are perhaps anxious about

exposing such people to pain capacities in

literature. But my sense of it is that it can

be liberating, it can even be upbeat toconfront really difficult emotions and pain:

it doesnt lower the experience to see it

being worked out where it can raise them.

Its what Thomas Hardy said, If a way to

the better there be it exacts a full look at

the worst, and I think hes right about

that. Even people who perhaps havent

experienced extreme despair and

depression first-hand will recognise it as a

result of reading what other people go

through; books become a kind of empathy,

they become a way for us to connect with

other people with other peoples

experiences.

Its said that reading works as therapy, that

at one level its a way of echoing, a way of

finding in a book an echo of your own

Blake Morrison

I think we locate ourselves in the work

of others- 9 -

Blake Morrison


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experience: you feel recognised, you feel

vindicated, you feel validated but also

sometimes it takes you to places that you

havent expected to go, places you perhaps

didnt even particularly want to go but you

feel grateful for having visited them. And I

do think that real works of literature,

without being snooty, the classics, works

of literature that stood the test of time,

have a serious purpose to them: they have

a shape, they are the crucial way for this

reading cure to work rather than overtly

self-help books. So you find a sort oforder and shape there in the poem, or in a

brilliant passage in a novel, which provides

that order you shore up against in the

disorder, the chaos and confusion in your

own life.

The reading cure works, I think, both as a

group, communal experience and as a

private one. Thats to say theres no doubt

the experience of sitting around a table

with other people discussing a book, that

the communal solidarity that gives, the

sense of engagement with others, sharing

things, is absolutely crucial.

But Id like to think that theres something

else too; that people go away, that they

withdraw but they take that experience

with them; that they read at home as well

and if theyre not reading at home very

much at least theyre thinking about the

issues that have come up. In other words,its social but theres also withdrawal into a

private place, a bit like a religious retreat if

you like. Youre taken out of the world

when youre reading and when taken out

the world you lose track of time and space.

Yet when youre taken out of yourself in

that waylike when you missed that stop

on the bus or the train because you were

immersed in a bookwhere youre takenoutof yourself like that, youre also being

taken inside yourself: youre going

somewhere deep inside yourself as well,

and thats what books can do, both take

you out of, and inside, yourself.

~~~

In The Prelude Wordsworth talks about

how there are spots of time in our lives,

which are scattered somewhere in our

memory and which when we read or when

we reflect we recover, like recovering

buried memories. By doing that, through

that act of recovery, we are in his terms

renovating and repairing. He says:

Blake Morrison

The reading cure works both as a group, communal

experience and as a private one

- 10 -

Blake Morrison


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There are in our existence spots of time,

That with distinct pre-eminence retain

A renovating virtue, whencedepressed

By false opinion and contentious thought,

Or aught of heavier or more deadly weight,

In trivial occupations, and the round

Of ordinary intercourseour minds

Are nourished and invisibly repaired;

A virtue, by which pleasure is enhanced,

That penetrates, enables us to mount,

When high, more high, and lifts us up when

fallen.

In reading poetry you recover these spots

of time in your memory and you feel

renovated, you are lifted up from

somewhere fallen. Its interesting that

words about being renovated are also used

by John Cross, the young man who used to

sit reading Dante with George Eliot after

her husband had died, which helped her

through her grief. John Cross, whosubsequently married George Eliot, said

about this experience: Her sympathetic

life in stimulating my newly awakened

enthusiasm for Dante is something to

distract her mind from sorrowful

memories. The divine poet took us to a

new world: it was a renovation of life. A

renovation.

So my feeling is, there is The Writing

Cure, there is The Reading Cure and I

think what Janes doing in trying to get

great books out there to the whole nation

is immensely valuable. I think that too

often literature can be annexed as the

property of teachers and lecturers: theyre

to do with school syllabuses; theyre to do

with university programmes, degree

programmes. But the best literature isabout life and the stuff that we experience

and that you go through, and I think that

the emphasis of Get Into Reading is for

people to make connections with their

own lives: to look at books as books, to

respond to them, judge them, decide

whether theyre good or not, but

constantly to make connection with their

own experiences, and that seems to me tobe a healthy way, the healthiest way to

approach books.

Im all for The Reading Cure.

Blake Morrison

Blake Morrison

Reading poetry you recover these spots of time in

your memory

- 11 -


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Professor Louis Appleby: How Reading is Good for Your Mental Health

What is the connection here? you might be

asking. What is the connection betweenreading and mental health? Why is it I am

here to draw up the link between the

work of Get Into Reading and my job,

which is forming national Mental Health

policy? By assumption that not everyone

here is a mental health professional, let me

just take you back a little bit to whats

happened in mental health services in the

last ten years.

Ten years ago when we began the process

of reform on the NHS, and mental health

care in particular, there was a very

pressing problem that community care was

seen to have failed. It had lost public

confidence. It had lost political confidence.

A very eminent politician had said,

Community care is a failed policy. That

was a damning comment to make about

what had been a twenty year period of de-institutionalisation. So at the time when I

moved into the Department of Health, the

policy became to try and restore

community care, to try and make people

feel it was the right policy, the humane

policy, for people with severe mental

illness and in particular for adults of

working age.

We set out to reshape the policy and wedid that by developing specialised services:

first of all an intensive community team,

which would support people who had

complex health and social care needs,

people who didnt easily accept what the

service traditionally had to offer, so would

drift out of care and become vulnerable

and become high risk. We were also

concerned about young people getting illfor the first time and it would take a long

time to have their first contact with

services, by which time theyd be more ill,

more in need of admission and more in

need of heavier treatment; we were

concerned to provide an alternative to

admission for people when there was a

safe alternative. We spent a lot of time

strengthening community care.

Its my job to create the policy content but

you realise when you work in government

policy that youre very dependent on the

people outside doing their job. People

need to pick up national policy and turn it

into something real for mental health

service users.

Louis Appleby

Louis Appleby

You need something more than just tabletsthats

only a crutchMental health service user - 12 -


15/24

So the success of the last ten years has

primarily been theirs because of the

success of the people working on front line

services. Two weeks ago the World

Health Organisation produced a report

that said British mental health services

were the model to follow across Europe.

Last week, the Healthcare Commission,

the independent watchdog for healthcare

in England, produced its annual report on

the NHS. There was a lot of reporting

about what was going wrong with it, none

of the reporting, as far as I could see,mentioned the key point that mental health

services was far outstripping other parts of

the NHS on quality of care. So something

has really changed. You couldnt say those

things ten to fifteen years ago. Something

has really changed about mental health

services.

But where does that leave us?

Well, much of what Ive described is about

specialised services for people with severe

mental illness, and you reach a point where

having done that, your policy emphasis has

to reflect that. It has to be about the

mental health needs of the community as a

wholeabout peoples emotional health as

well as their mental illness, about

emotional well-being. So the policy switchof the last year or so and this will

become more apparent in the next five or

ten yearsthe policy switch has been the

broader community. Not just adults of

working age, but children and older

people; not just people who are in

specialist services, but people who are

outside the remit of specialist care but

who still have mental health needs. We all

have mental health needs. And people of

the margins of society, people whotraditionally mental health care has been

about: people who are offenders, people

who are in prison, coming out of prison,

young people who have been in care,

people who are marginalised by society,

asylum seekers, refugees; the kind of

people who dont usually get very good

press. Those are the people whose mental

health needs we will now reach out to.

That means not just treatment, it means

prevention and it means mental health

promotion. So the thrust of mental health

policy will be much more addressing the

mental health needs of people who are not

mentally ill but who are emotionally in

need. Im talking about people who have

lost confidence, people who have lost self-

Louis Appleby

Its been great this a real boost

Client at drugs detox unit - 13 -

Louis Appleby


16/24

esteem, not necessarily depressed, people

who have lost family, people who have lost

friends, and people who are lonely and

isolated. Its a major challenge for society

to support the people who are lonely.

Were going to talk a lot about loneliness

in society. Loneliness is a major challenge

to modern society where movement

around the country is fragmented, within

cities and so on. There are positive things

as well: there are people who are positive

about what they can achieve, who are

optimistic and who still have mental healthneeds, who still need to address their own

mental health needs if theyre to fulfil their

potential. Thats much more of what youll

now see from the mental health policy.

But what in practice does this mean? What

do we mean when we talk about

prevention and promotion and how does

reading fit into mental health promotion

and prevention?

I should say Ive noticed a few of the things

youve already said: The first way in which

that promotion and prevention agenda can

be turned into something practical is

through schools, through the workplace,

where we talk to children about emotional

literacy, not just conventional literacy.

Schools nowadays are starting to do a

much better job of this than five years ago.

Its much more part of what schools see as

responsibleits not just about preventing

bullying or support, its also about giving

people the language of emotions throughwhich they can understand themselves and

others. Its about what the government

would call social exclusionhelping people

into training, helping people into jobs,

helping them defeat the stigma of

discrimination that people with mental

health needs, not just with severe mental

illness, encounter in their day to day lives.

There was a very important report

published in 2004 by a social exclusion

group which was about social exclusion

and mental health; important because it

was the first cross-government report that

had focused on mental healtha significant

moment. It was helping people into training

and helping people fulfil their potential in

literacy was a key part of it.

So how can reading be good for yourmental health? How does it fit in directly

to this agenda?

I think there are three ways: first of all

there is a direct impact of reading on us as

individuals, on our emotional health and on

our social health. It may be an obvious

thing to say but combating depression,

combating low mood, is partly about

Louis Appleby

That means not just treatment, it means prevention

and it means promotion

- 14 -

Louis Appleby


17/24

addressing whats enjoyable. You might

think that everybody would know that but

it has taken years of research, careful

research, to demonstrate that a model of

depression, human depression, which is a

kind of vicious circle, whereby peoples

emotions when they are low will prevent

them from doing things that will lift them

out of feeling low. Thats the vicious circle.

So, an obvious example, if youre feeling

low about something, any of us feeling low,

and a friend rings up asking you to go out,

you can feel I cant quite be bothered,and its that decision, influenced by your

mood, which maintains your lower mood.

Now, therefore, there is a whole world of

therapy built on the idea of reversing that

vicious circle, and the key importance

therefore is doing something which you get

an immediate lift out of. Not because its

transforming in itself, but because its the

first step towards helping people out of the

vicious circle. So, you can see the point

here, if you can get enjoyment out of

reading, then that is an important factor of

maintaining mood and maintaining our

capability.

There is also a direct impact of simply

understanding. Reading presents to us the

themes of life: books are about jealousyand regret and resentment and revenge.

Revenge is what Wuthering Heights is all

about, isnt it? These themes are

mentioned in Shakespearethats what his

plays were about, they were about these

things and theyre powerful because we

identify with them. We identify with the

people in these stories and we learn about

them, of course, but we also learn about

ourselves. That emotional language, that

emotional literacy of understanding comes

from observing other people, whether its

in fiction or in life. So there are characters

who are like us and characters who are

not like us. Every adolescent reads The

Catcher in the Rye and learns about Holden

Caulfield. I remember reading The Catcher

in the Rye at university and thinking I really

didnt like Caulfield at all. I was expecting a

great moment of identification with this

adolescent crisis but I really didnt like him

at all. It was actually quite helpful not tolike him because I thought, I hope I dont

come across like that at times. So we can

learn from characters who we like,

characters who we dont like, characters

who we are like and characters who we

are not like. We learn a lot about

ourselves.

We also learn about achievement. Reading

can be an achievement. Of course Im

partly talking about people whose

education or social environment hasnt

given them the opportunities for reading

that maybe some people have had. But its

not just that. Im looking forward to the

moment when I finally have time to read

War and PeaceI know that when I read it

I will feel really proud of myself and itll be

a great achievement. It doesnt matter if Ilike it or not, it will be a great achievement

because Ive been looking forward to it for

so long. Certainly there is a sense of

achievement, and coming back to what I

was saying about understanding human

emotion and human mood, we know that

achieving something is another way of

getting a lift, of reversing that vicious circle.

Louis Appleby

Its something normal you can join in without havingto talk about mental health problems

Mental health service user - 15 -

Louis Appleby


18/24

I said its good for our individual health but

its also good for our social health. I

suppose this is why I think a project like

this has an edge on just reading because

there is a social dimension. If you go to

libraries, they play a similar role. There is a

social side to it, to talking to people. I

remember when the BBC did that

campaign about the hundred best books. I

thought that was very interesting, very

good because people began to talk, all

sorts of people began to talk about books

that they enjoyed. I discovered peopleliked books that I liked, who I hadnt

otherwise had any other contact with.

People who I was reading about, people

who I happened to meet. It was a social

dimension to shared experience, shared

enjoyment, which cant be underestimated.

Families know this, all families know this.

Growing up in a family where parents read

to their children, there is a social

dimension there, a bond, a shared

experience there, which is good for our

emotional health. Its not about treating

depression, its about remaining

emotionally healthy. I still read to my nine

year old son, I think I do it more for my

sake, not for his; he sort of sighs tolerantly

when I get the book. Its because it is a

tremendous bonding experience. I know

when I stop theres going to be a moment

of tremendous loss, the moment when he

actually says, You know what, Id actually

like to read for myself tonight, I just know

thats going to be an emotional moment.

There is also a social inclusion element.

Reading is a skill. It leads us onto other

skills. It is a step on the way to training,

onto work, in a way that many peopleneed help with. Im not particularly talking

about severe mental illness but its

impossible not to refer to mental illness

when we talk about skills, helping people

back into mainstream society. There are

people who have suffered severe mental

illness, who need that help back into

training, into jobs, just to do part of what

the rest of us take for granted and any step

on the way is the right step for them.

There are many people who are troubled

and failing in education and anything that

helps them back into educational

achievement is right for them. So theres a

direct impact and theres the lower impact

on schools. Thirdly, theres something a

reading project can bring and that is, it can

bring the values of society to people. Then

there are the values of opportunity,fulfilling potential, of providing support, and

a sense of community one person for

another. Those are the right values for a

modern society. So I see Get Into Reading

as very important as it does all those

things.

Louis Appleby

We learn a lot about ourselves. Reading can

be an achievement

- 16 -

Louis Appleby


19/24

Get Into Reading: Salford

Get Into Reading in Salford utilises the existing skills and resources of the library service and

other services within the Community Health and Social Care Directorate, in partnership

with The Reader Organisation and Salford Primary Care Trust. The project is an excellent

way to support the health improvement agenda. It was established as Salford Libraries key

project for the National Year of Reading 2008.

Groups are delivered at a variety of venues across the city:

A residential care home

An arts centre for people with mental health

problems

A day centre

A community library

A homeless shelter

The library service leads the project with two dedicated days per week from Reader

Development Officer Sarah Coyne and by providing resources to support the groups.

Groups are facilitated by Sarah and Amanda Brown, a member of The Reader Organisation.

We are in a situation where everything is done for us, we get out of the habit of

thinking. This group presents us with the opportunity to think for ourselves, stirs

up the old grey matter!

Care home resident

The challenge now is to develop the project by encouraging more staff working within day

care centres, elderly persons homes, libraries and other organisations to become actively

involved in the facilitation of Get Into Reading groups.

Many other library authorities in the region and nationally are keen to follow this exemplary

model. There are advanced discussions and plans in progress in a number of NW

authorities, with others trying out different models of health-related reading activity.

Nationally, training and delivery models are being discussed and piloted.

Public Library Services in NW England support a large and growing number of reading

groups in libraries and communities and are very keen to further develop groups whichhave a health benefit for people who need it most. A number of library authorities have

already taken steps to support the Get Into Reading model. A clear example of this is

Salford Library Service.



Theres much more to a reading group than

just reading a bookGIR member, Salford - 17 -


20/24

Read to Lead Training

It was a privilege to attend a course that feels like it could truly change the way Iwork ... and to learn from the dedicated, enthusiastic members of The ReaderOrganisation.

TraineeRead to Lead Workshop

Want to know more about Get Into Reading (GIR)? This workshop offers the opportunityto take part in an intensive reading experience as part of a GIR group, observe theprinciples of our work in action and learn about specialised reading and group facilitationtechniques. You will meet people from your part of the country who are interested in GIRand be able to discuss strategies for developing GIR in your area. (Cost: 150)

It was a joy and a privilege to be there. I think it's such a wonderful thing you're

doingon so many levels. Very many thanks for an inspiring day.

Workshop attendee

Read to Lead Residential

This residential course is intended for people who want to become accredited Get IntoReading facilitators. Over a fun but intensive five days this course will give you the insiderview on what makes GIR work.

The enthusiasm of all involved staff, group members and fellow students

gives one the energy and optimism to get going; the stimulus is both spiritual and

intellectual.

Course attendee

GIR facilitators and reading group members will put you through a vigorous reading

workout, help you identify areas of practice to work on, and give you the opportunity to

lead a reading group in a companionable and supportive environment. This course provides

all the experience necessary to run a GIR project. (Cost: 1,000)

Read to Lead

The Reader Organisation delivers specialist Read to Lead training throughout the

country for those with a desire to spread the pleasure and power of reading through theGet Into Reading model. Courses are open to people from all professional and socialbackgrounds: a love of books, a belief in the social value of reading, and a passion toshare this vision are our main criteria.

Read to Lead

Immensely good and nourishing

Read to Lead trainee - 18 -


21/24

Read to Lead Non-Residential

This training course is intended for people who want to become accredited Get Into

Reading (GIR) facilitators, but whose schedules do not allow for them to attend the Read toLead Residential.

Brilliant and varied. The courses flexibility was really great and the rests in between

allowed me fully to absorb the information.

The course is delivered over six day-long sessions, scheduled over a course of time that

suits your timetable. In addition to four core sessions:

Introductory Workshop

Read Aloud with Confidence

Facilitation Skills in Depth

Choosing Reading Materials

your group will be able to choose specific workshops relevant to nature of the GIR project

you wish to develop.

Cost: 800 (minimum 8 trainees; maximum 12 trainees)

Read to Lead Consultancy

Through the Read to Lead training programme, The Reader Organisation offers tailor-made

consultancy in developing Get Into Reading and other aspects of our expertise throughout

the country. Please contact Casi Dylan, Training Manager, on the details below to talk over

the best way to make your workplace, service, or team part of the GIR community.

Reading in Practice MA

The Reader Organisation is involved in the delivery and development of an MA degree in

Reading in Practice at the University of Liverpool. The MA is concerned with the wider anddeeper ways in which books find people, emotionally and imaginatively, by offering living

models and visions of human troubles and human possibilities. The first MA of its kind, it

invites open-minded investigation into the role of reading in relation to health in the

broadest sense of that word. The MA, costing approximately 2000, is taught part time (in

two-hour seminars on Thursday evenings) over two years.

Read to Lead

Read to Lead

The small decisions a writers made, thats where

thoughts can be found: the authors and our ownCurrent MA student - 19 -


22/24

The Reader Organisation

The Reader Organisation exists to bring about a Reading Revolution, extending the hand of supportive shared reading,

and offering access to books for all. Our work encourages people of all ages and backgrounds, in whatever life situation

they find themselves, to become readers, or to extend their reading habits, and to share the reading experience.

If you would like to explore working in partnership with us, offer us funding or support, or help champion our cause,

please contact Jen Tomkins, Communications Manager on 0151 794 3849, email [email protected], or pick

up a pen and write: 19 Abercromby Square, Liverpool, L69 7ZG.

www.thereader.org.uk

Arts About Manchester

As the audience development agency for Greater Manchester, Arts About Manchester supports arts and cultural

organisations in building and sustaining their audiences. We are a membership organisation who acts as a central point

of contact for the local arts community as well as an important research and intelligence resource. Our expertise in

audience development and arts marketing also means that we work with non-members at both regional and national

level.

Wed be happy to hear from you at any of the following contact points: Telephone 0161 234 2955; Email -

[email protected]; Fax0161 234 2966; Postal AddressArts About Manchester, Green Fish Resource Centre, 46-

50 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LE

www.aam.org.uk

Time To Read

Time To Read has existed as a formal reader development network since 1997 and has supported a full-time co-

ordinator since October 2002. The post is hosted by Manchester City Council and core funding comes from

subscriptions from NW library authorities. Focus is on working with adults, but also addresses areas of overlapping

work with young people and families. Time To Read has an agreed strategy for reader development activity called

Readers For Life. This was recently renewed and takes work forward to 2011.

Through its Readers For Life Strategy, Time To Read is concerned with many aspects of public library service delivery:

Promoting reading services to potential usersEncouraging wide reading through promotions and use of reading-related websites

Bringing readers together in groups and at events, to counter social isolation

Supporting libraries work with emergent readers

The work of Get Into Reading clearly fulfils Time To Reads strategy in these areas. Librarians across the NW are wellaware of the achievements and impact of Get Into Reading, and are striving in many places to establish and maintainGet Into Reading Groups for the benefit of local communities and individuals.

www.time-to-read.co.uk

Contact Us

It moves you, I mean it hits you inside where it meets you

and means somethingDementia sufferer on reading poetry - 20 -

Contact Us
mailto:[email protected]://www.thereader.org.uk/http://www.thereader.org.uk/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.aam.org.uk/http://www.aam.org.uk/http://www.time-to-read.co.uk/http://www.time-to-read.co.uk/http://www.time-to-read.co.uk/http://www.aam.org.uk/mailto:[email protected]://www.thereader.org.uk/mailto:[email protected]


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In the presence of books, it's as if a handhas reached out and taken our own. That's

the hand The Reader Organisation is tryingto extend.The Guardian

GIR Manchester Showcase Booklet

Documents

Transcript of GIR Manchester Showcase Booklet