Committee Member of Leicestershire Shared Reading

Shared Reading:

Shared Reading was pioneered by The Reader (www.thereader.org), a Liverpool-based charity and social enterprise, and is described by them as "a unique experience that helps thousands of people to connect, feel good and live well"

To quote further from The Reader:

*"A group of people, one of them a trained Reader Leader, reads a great novel, short story or poem aloud. We stop and talk about what we have read. There is no need for group members to read aloud or speak – it’s fine to just listen. The idea is to create a space where people feel at ease.

"Reading the literature aloud in real-time means that everyone is involved in a shared, live experience. Group members are encouraged by the Reader Leader to respond personally, sharing feelings, thoughts and memories provoked by the reading.

"Everyone experiences the text in their own way, but the literature provides a shared language that can help us to understand ourselves – and others – better."*

Shared Reading in Leicestershire:

Shared Reading first came to Leicestershire libraries in 2014, as a joint project between Leicestershire Libraries and The Reader. When public funding for the project ended in 2016, we set up Leicestershire Shared Reading (LSR), a voluntary organisation, to ensure that the groups could continue. Currently, we have nine groups which meet weekly, either in person at public libraries around the county or online via Zoom, and which collectively attract around 60 attendees every week.

Our team:

We have 16 volunteers who are trained Reader Leaders, and one admin volunteer; seven of these people also currently serve as committee members. The committee has three officer posts (Chair, Secretary and Treasurer) and can have up to six other members.

Without exception our volunteers are passionate about the power of reading, and their contribution to the community.

Our funding:

As a voluntary organisation we can apply for financial support from bodies such as the National Lottery and local charities. Our main expense is the training and support of our volunteers, who all attend an initial intensive ‘Read to Lead’ course and can access various types of refresher training, ensuring that our group members have the best possible experience. This training is supplied by The Reader.

We work in close partnership with Culture Leicestershire who meet most of our other running costs - for instance the photocopying of texts and our Zoom subscription - as well as ensuring that meeting spaces in libraries are available for our groups.

Our objectives: ​

• To run shared reading groups which engage people (especially those who are older and isolated) with great literature at a deep and personal level, enabling them to form social connections, improving their mental wellbeing, and providing stability and support
• To provide a network for ongoing support and development for the trained volunteers who lead the groups
• To work in partnership with Leicestershire County Council library and volunteering services/Culture Leicestershire, and with The Reader (www.thereader.org.uk)

Our current priorities:

While it is always exciting to consider how we could develop Shared Reading by taking it into new areas, our chief concern is to safeguard the continuation of our existing groups and our partnership with Culture Leicestershire. To do this we aim to strengthen our committee by recruiting new members who do not need to come from within the organisation, who will be active, and who will bring skills in areas such as marketing and IT.

Alongside this we aim to promote our groups and build attendance at some of them. Recruiting new Reader Leader volunteers is always on the agenda as a larger team will help us share the load of leading each group.