Spotlight On The Reader
This article continues our series highlighting the exceptional work done by otherwise-overlooked not-for-profit organisations in their local communities. Each enterprise we cover is making a massive difference to the lives of the people they support, but may be less well known outside their immediate circles. The Behind the Change series aims to showcase these organisations’ incredible successes, and identify ways to help support their work.
Founded in 1997, The Reader could not have foreseen where the future would take them. What started as a magazine has now grown into a community interest company with over 1,000 volunteers and partners, bringing the transformative and healing power of literature and community to thousands of people across the globe each year.
From Humble Beginnings to Worldwide Impact
The Reader is a Liverpool not-for-profit organisation that has risen from the most humble of beginnings. Originally beginning in 1997 as a development of the Shared Reading concept, by 2010, Shared Reading groups had spread from Liverpool to London and beyond, now operating in 18 countries across the world.
In 2014 The Reader’s scope and reach truly began to bloom through the refurbishment of their new headquarters in the then-dilapidated Grade-II Mansion House, Calderstones, with help from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This created opportunities for not only Shared Reading programmes but also cultural events, and art, heritage and well-being activities; in the words of founder Jane Davis MBE, this is a site for “creative and happiness-inducing activities… a place open to all and full of possibilities, all held together by a golden thread of literature.”
The grounds now boast multiple venues, running a range of initiatives, events, and social enterprises including Shared Reading groups, return to employment schemes, events, The Reader Bookshop, and The Storybarn- a space for young imaginations to run wild, and all profits are reinvested back into the charity to broaden their reach ever further.
The Beauty of Shared Reading
The first Shared Reading group was started in 2002, and this model still lies at the heart of The Reader’s work today. Numerous bodies of research highlighted the ability of Shared Reading to provide therapeutic benefits to participants, terming it bibliotherapy. Bringing people together to read aloud and discuss poems, short stories, and novels under the leadership of a trained facilitator, Shared Reading aids relaxation, fosters a sense of community, and fights the isolation so many experience nowadays.
The activity opens great literature up to members of society who might otherwise not engage with writing. Providing whole worlds in which one can forget the self and explore other lives, group members are encouraged by the leader to respond personally to the text, sharing feelings, thoughts and memories it provokes. Through relating to the experiences and feelings of the characters, it helps give people insight into, and words to communicate, their own feelings and problems. As Professor Philip Davis of the University of Liverpool put it,
“Shared Reading allows the strong language of powerful literature to get to people emotionally – to get under their defences and depressions, their defaults and their pre-formed opinions, to the emotions and memories of their core selves. In doing so, it shakes up mental patterns, and helps people get away from set attitudes or disappointing outcomes.”
Shared Reading For Everyone
The NHS was quick to seize on the potential for this fresh way of reaching hard-to-treat patients for whom traditional talking therapies had had little or no impact, with a commission from Merseyside Care NHS Commission in 2007. By 2008 the world was taking notice, and Shared Reading took centre stage in a Guardian report into bibliotherapy, The Reading Cure.
The Reader has especially emphasised bringing Shared Reading to marginalised groups who might otherwise not have the opportunity or motivation to engage with great literature. Groups they work with include looked after children, people in recovery from substance misuse, prisoners, individuals living with dementia, asylum seekers, and people living with mental and physical health conditions. As Anton puts it,
The Reader is “a human-focused organisation… We meet people where they are [and] support [them] as much or as little as needed. We have the ability to help people, so why wouldn’t we?”
The Shared Reading approach to literature has the power to provide solace, insight, and a sense of belonging to people facing exclusion or experiencing mental health issues. By facilitating communication and reflection in a setting of trust, free of judgement, well-being can flourish and the tendency to feel isolated and disenfranchised can be successfully challenged and overcome.
The impact of Shared Reading on those in the criminal justice system highlights this perfectly: according to the results of the Ministry of Justice’s 2022 research,
People in prisons “who attended [the weekly] Shared Reading groups scored statistically significantly higher compared to other members on the wing in relation to wellbeing, hope, agency and self-efficacy, and interpersonal trust. The more sessions participants attended, the higher their scores on hope, motivation to change, interpersonal trust, and relationships with staff.”
The Sky’s the Limit
The Shared Reading movement has gone from strength to strength over the last 15 years, with 420 groups operating across the UK alone, and 96 weekly Shared Reading activities for children. The organisation’s 2024 Feedback Week found that 95% of respondents reported that Shared Reading lifts their mood and 85% now feel like they belong more to a community.
As Anton Clarke, Director of Social Enterprise, puts it,
“The Reader is “a human-focused organisation… We meet people where they are [and] support [them] as much or as little as needed. We have the ability to help people, so why wouldn’t we?
The Reader has lofty ambitions for the future. They are constantly exploring new ways to reach ever more people, with plans to open up more locations across the UK, partnerships with schools, and digital Shared Reading aiming to make the benefits of literature and community accessible to all. Looking at their successes so far, realising their ambition of a global Reading Revolution seems well within their grasp.
Shared Reading is an accessible and easy to implement way of building and supporting communities. In a world that can too often feel fragmented and disconnected, the work of The Reader provides us all with hope for the future, and demonstrates that through the simple act of reading together, bonds can be made and lives enriched.
If the work of The Reader strikes a chord with you and you’d like to what they do, or you know of any organisations that might, you can donate or register to become a volunteer here. To discuss other ways in which you can help The Reader in their mission to bring the healing power of literature to the world, get in touch for a chat at comms@thereader.org.uk.
Finally, if there’s a charity, community group, or social enterprise dear to your heart that you think deserves the RealWorth Spotlight shining on them, please send your suggestion- with a short (max 500 words) breakdown of the good work that they are doing- to VSCE.Spotlight@RealWorth.org for us to consider.
