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There‟s an early twentieth
-
century snapshot I‟m fond of, by the Hungarian photographer
AndréKertész
, which shows three small boys crouched together over a book. What‟s striking about it isn‟t
that two of the boys are barefoot or even that
they‟re reading outside, in the street, rather than inschool. It‟s the sense that they‟re engaged in a communal endeavour –
a shared experience.We tend to think of reading as a solitary activity. But books give us access to the minds and heartsof the people who appear in them. And when we discuss a novel together, or take turns at reading
poetry aloud in a group, we‟re brought into tangible contact with fellow readers too. It‟s the
therapeutic effect of such contact that The Reader Organisation seeks to promote. The manyinitiatives it has set-up on Merseyside and beyond show that reading can make us feel both better
in
ourselves and better
about
ourselves. They also democratise the reading process, by taking poems,classics and literary novels out of the classroom into the community.In his 1543 Act for the Advancement of True Religion, Henry VIII criminalised reading aloud by
women; men of the „lower
c
lasses‟ were banned too, for fear that „naughty and erroneous opinions‟
would ensue. Five centuries later such prohibitions have disappeared, at least in the West. But
there‟s still a feeling in less privileged parts of society that „books aren‟t for the likes of us‟. The work
of The Reader Organisation is crucial in undoing that damaging misperception
–
and in making thepleasures and healing powers of great literature available to everyone.Blake MorrisonChair of The Reader Organisation Board of Trustees
Contents
About The Reader Organisation
………………………………………………………… 2
Extending a Hand
………………………………………………………… 3
Bringing About a Reading Revolution
………………………………………………………… 4
REACHING OUT
………………………………………………………… 5
Get Into Reading
………………………………………………………… 6
Mersey Care
………………………………………………………… 7
Wirral Young People
…………………………………………………………
8GIR Get-Together
………………………………………………………… 9
GIR Beyond Merseyside
………………………………………………………… 10
Case Study: Louise Jones
………………………………………………………… 11
Community Shakespeare
………………………………………………………… 12
Liverpool Reads
…………………………………………………………
13Case Study: The L8 Girls
………………………………………………………… 14
Read to Lead Training
………………………………………………………… 15
Case Study: James Freeley
………………………………………………………… 17
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
………………………………………………………… 18
READER EVENTS
…………………………………………………………
21THE READER MAGAZINE
………………………………………………………… 24
Website and Blog
………………………………………………………… 25
In the Spotlight
………………………………………………………… 26
Awards
………………………………………………………… 27
ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
………………………………………………………… 28
Trustees
………………………………………………………… 29
Staff
………………………………………………………… 31
Our Aims
………………………………………………………… 32
Public Benefit
………………………………………………………… 33
SUMMARY ACCOUNTS
………………………………………………………… 3
4
The Reader OrganisationThe Reader Organisation
Books enable us
“
better to enjoy life, or better to endure it
”
Samuel Johnson
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Extending a Hand…
In the summer of 2001 I walked nervously into a community education building in the north end of Birkenhead to start the very first Get Into Reading group. As I faltered in the doorway, I had no ideathat the project would run beyond its allotted five weeks. Suddenly it seemed quite stupid toattempt to recreate the type of group I had enjoyed teaching in my classes at the University of Liverpool with the adults I was about to meet: people not interested in books, or unaccustomed to
„literature‟, or maybe only just becoming literate. B
ut that is what I was trying to do: get great booksout of the University and into the hands of people who
–
like myself, I assumed
–
needed them.By 2008, seven years later, that shaky first step had led to the founding of a charitable company, TheReader Organisation, with thousands of beneficiaries, the subject of national and internationalinterest, and with a turnover in its first year of half a million pounds. It has been a wonderful, fast-paced, and moving journey. Many people have helped enormously but two people played key partsand must be mentioned by name: Susan Blishen at the Paul Hamlyn Foundation saw the potential of the project and backed it, teaching me a lot along the way; Blake Morrison, by featuring our work in
his „Reading Cure‟ piece for the
Guardian
, invited the world to look at our model, an invitation whichhas been taken up by readers across the UK as well as in Europe, Australia and the United States.I ought not to have worried as I hesitated in that doorway:
of course
, the power and sheer demandof the reading experience interested the group enough to bring them back the following week.
When one reader was moved to tears by Tennyson‟s „Crossing the Bar‟, and when at the end of thatsession another reader reached out his hand to her and said quietly, “Well done, kidder”, I knew
something powerful had happened. Get Into Reading has taught me that syntax, ever flexible, preciseand tough, makes written language the most complex and experiential modelling material we have,and great writers use it to model what it is to be human, helping us to name, and thus in some senseto
know
our feelings. By reading aloud, together, these groups are able to experience a possibly vitalknowing or feeling
together
. That is why we have always said that Get into Reading builds community.When we look up and see the bigger problems our world faces it is easy to lose sight of the value of that small act of exte
nding the hand (“Well done, kidder”), but if humanity is the problem, humanity
is also the answer and nothing is more important than that we understand
ourselves
. It is acommonplace assumption, here in the West, that we have universal, free education. We
don‟t. Most
people leave school and never read a book or a poem again. Does that matter? Yes it does, and thatis why we are building the Reading Revolution: to make access to great books available to everyone.It has been hard holding tight to the feeling of this vision whilst laying the foundations for anorganisation. Many thanks to Board members, Staff and Volunteers, to friends and colleagues inother areas of life, and above all to the readers who have helped and inspired us all.
Jane DavisFounder and Director
The Reader OrganisationThe Reader Organisation
“
Most people leave school and never read a book or a poem again. Does that matter? Yes
”
Jane Davis
- 3 -
About The Reader Organisation
The Reader Organisation is a charity that exists to bring about a Reading Revolution: that meansgreat books reaching everybody. Our work encourages people of all ages and backgrounds, inwhatever life situation they find themselves, to become readers, or to extend their reading habits,and to share the reading experience.For us, reading is a force for social good that can build community and enhance lives.
We‟
re turningnon-readers into readers, one page at a time.This report details our activities from August 2008 to April 2009.
The Reader OrganisationThe Reader Organisation
“
The reading group mends holes in the net
you would otherwise fall through”
GIR member, Birkenhead
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