Our Off The Page project is getting underway, with our volunteers being trained and inducted into the programme where they’ll be helping us reach hundreds of disadvantaged children across Liverpool with reading. Team Off The Page have been busy making a star appearance on BBC Radio Merseyside (as well as snapping a selfie with Roger Phillips), selecting texts to read – a big thank you to the Siobhan Dowd Trust for sending through a hundred old and new favourites especially for the project! – and planning for their week-long Summer School, which will be coming to Calderstones Mansion House at the end of August. We’re currently looking for a charismatic, entertaining and enthusiastic individual to become our Summer School Leader – if you can think creatively and are passionate about engaging young people with literature and new experiences, you could fit the bill. More information can be found here (deadline for applicants is Thursday 16th July, 9am).
“One day one ten year old boy was having a really bad day. He had taken a while to begin to join in with the team but had settled in, and we’d found a series of books he’d liked which we were really pleased about. This one day he was restless and uncooperative. The other assistants and I were worried about him and cared deeply that he was obviously unhappy.
I asked him if he wanted a bit of time out from the group and we sat together and I read Jack and the Baked Beanstalk by Colin Stimpson while he listened. It was young for his age but as we often found, suitable age groupings for books were irrelevant if the story was a good one. He really loved it and I loved being able to give him that time. It was a true shared reading experience and I think we both benefitted from it! I really felt the calming and inspiring power of literature and reading stories. I didn’t need to ask him what was wrong but he visibly relaxed and engaged with the story. He was great at drawing cartoons and when we rejoined the group he sat and drew his own version of the book. We were reading a story out loud at the time and when we were talking about it he joined in, so we knew he’d been listening and enjoying that too. It was such a positive experience, I’ll never forget it.
Of course, a love of reading isn’t just for summer – we’re looking for volunteers who would be able to commit to reading with a young person aged between 11-16 one-on-one for a minimum of six months. You’ll receive full training and support from our Off The Page team, and the rewards you’ll receive from sharing literature and being involved in a young person’s development at such a vital stage are endless.
Off the Page is our new Liverpool Families project, which aims to improve the lives of disadvantaged children across the city through shared reading. Working with the Liverpool Families Programme, over the course of three years we aim to reach 500 disadvantaged children through regular one-on-one sessions led by volunteers.
Not only will the project directly engage the children themselves with a love for reading for pleasure, in some cases revisited and others for the first time, but will also extend to the adults in their lives – be they parents, carers, family support workers. community staff or volunteers, meaning that reading experiences are more likely to continue.
During the project, 40 of the most disadvantaged children will come together for an extraordinary week-long ‘Book It!’ reading experience at Calderstones Mansion House. This fun reading space will allow the children to make friends, form a positive relationship with reading and one another and relax in the calm, inspiring environment of Calderstones Park. ‘Book It!’ ran for the first time last year, and was part of our drive for knowing that many more children could benefit greatly from the unique experience it provided.
It’s often an exciting time at The Reader – in a staff team that’s almost doubled since I arrived in 2013, there’s always a new face to greet at the Monday yoga class or a new cake to try amongst the friendly chatter in the staff kitchen. I was recently brought on to the new Liverpool Families project Off the Page and can’t describe the feeling of excitement that came with the realisation we’d be working with some of Liverpool’s most worthy recipients of our magical potion – shared reading.
In one way or another I’ve been working with disadvantaged teenagers for over a decade. Of all my experiences though, a project with Looked After Children last summer stood out. We spent a fortnight reading out loud with children who didn’t see themselves as readers, who weren’t used to being around fun adults and had to relearn a sense of play. The results were profound. One child from the Book It! Summer School was waking up at 5 to read Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Another chose to read after several clear ‘no’s when asked. A third came out of her shell, speaking more frequently and more loudly. The 20 or so children were grouped into teams of animals, and I was a fellow member of the Wolf team. As the days progressed, all the boys from the Wolves showed pleasant surprise at being praised, then pushed themselves to be praised again. By the end, through their own volition, every Wolf read. There was a willingness by all children on the last day to take home books we’d recommended to them specifically. A real trust had been built.
Thankfully some key decision makers heard about the magic and came to see it for themselves. They have gone on to develop Off the Page which, if we are successful, will reach over 500 of Liverpool’s children over the next three years. So if like me, you want to sip at the magic potion and share your passion for reading, get in touch!
We’re currently looking for volunteers to make weekly visits to a child (aged 11-16) either in their own home, foster home or community setting to read aloud and discuss literature with them. Volunteer positions will last for a minimum of six months for one hour at the same time each week, and are set across four areas within Liverpool – Kensington, Everton, Toxteth or Walton.