At the close of 2009 we thought we would share with you some of our favourite reads of the year.

Claire Styles, who leads our young people's projects. "Grimm's Fairy tales. Love the intricate storytelling, archaic language and fascinating insights into post-medieval rural life. Particularly relished the gruesome consequences for various witches etc. - crushed by millstones, roasted in hot ovens, forced to dance in molten shoes, served as stew... Perfect for bedtime!"

Brenda Read-Brown, who works on our young people's projects. "This is Water by David Foster Wallace. It's a very short book, with only a sentence or two on each page, but if you haven't time to read it all, just page 120 would do."

Liz Dubber, who heads up our programmes. "I finally read Philip Roth this year and was captivated by American Pastoral. It shows a harsh underside to the American dream, yet still manages to be optimistic and life affirming."

Sandeep Mahal, who manages our publisher partnerships. "Sum: Forty Tales of the Afterlives by David M. Eagleman. The simplicity and originality of the short stories just blew me away. The book is about the essence of living and each short story explores the preciousness of life. Each story is around a page and a half and the language is just captivating. Everyone should read it!"

Tricia Kings, who leads our children's projects. "I've got two and can't decide; they kind of go together as an inspiration about making the most of your life. Biography of Frances Partridge (lived till 103, an inspiration about life and how much people matter) and Bright Star/So bright and delicate - love letters and poems of Keats to Fanny Brawne (this time such a short life and such beautiful thinking and writing)."

Jenny Warner, who manages the office. "I enjoyed Home, the Orange prize winner."

Debbie Hicks, who directs our research. "Kate Atkinson's When Will There Be Good News. I love her writing because it peels back the top layer of ordinariness from everyday life to remind us of its bizarre and darker side."

Genevieve Clarke, who leads our adult literacy learners projects. "I loved and wept over A Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry. It's a powerful and emotional tale of the early life of an elderly Irish lady who's been incarcerated wrongly in a psychiatric institution for most of her adult years. I've done quite a bit of voluntary work with old people and they've always got a story to tell if you find the right way in."

Maureen Mucculloch, who is our director of finance. "My choice for the year is Proust and The Squid by Maryanne Wolf. It is about the history and science of the reading brain and is multi-disciplinarily brilliant, neuroscience mixed with personal anecdote and Greek myths."

Deborah Hyde, communications consultant who looks after our media relationships. "One of my most interesting and moving reads of 2009 was written nearly 2,500 years ago. It's Books 6 and 7 of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. Amidst all the recording of Greek politics and blow by blow battle descriptions there is some really powerful writing about the human tragedy of conflict."

Sue Jones, one of our consultants. "The book that's stayed with me is Colm Toibin's Brooklyn which should have made the Booker shortlist! Beautifully and sparingly written it reminds us of the central importance of love in our lives and how we sometimes have to make invidious choices to do what is right for those we love."

Kate Ingrams, finance manager. "I enjoyed Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. It's an autobiographical novel about growing up in Iran in a time of upheaval and, although the events took place in the 1980s, they are (depressingly) still being repeated in many countries today. I had never read a graphic novel before and was initially a bit sceptical about the format but ended up being impressed at how one small picture could express a wealth of emotion which might have taken half a page of narrative to describe."

Anne Sarrag, director of the Summer Reading Challenge. "A couple of books which really sum up peace and meaning at this time of year and two children's picture books (which I shall be giving as presents to grown ups this year!) Michael Morpurgo & Michael Foreman The Best Christmas Present in the World, a story of the German-English football match and carol singing in the trench in 1914, and The Gift of the Magi by O Henry & P J Lynch, about a young couple who are very poor and sell something special to them to buy a gift for the other, with a twist."

Penny Shapland-Chew, director of resources and strategy. "Grace Bowman's Thin really struck me. It's autobiographical about anorexia and it reflects lots of the stresses living in western World today brings. I've been very much feeling how important it is to try to enjoy life, which is fragile, and to try to relate to other people with humility and kindness. The book is about how a person can slide into being dysfunctional and about the strength of the human mind to find a way out of that (in Grace's case anyway).

Miranda McKearney our director. "Mark Cocker's Crow Country was one of my best reads this year, amongst a bunch of wonderful nature writing, an emerging genre that mixes intense and scholarly exploration of the natural world with reflections on the writer's inner life. The implicit challenge is to absorb and be nourished by the everyday around us, to stop chasing the exotic and dive more deeply into the world close by."

Michelle Treagust, who manages our projects for adult literacy learners. "The book I particularly enjoyed this year was the graphic novel _A Woman's World _by Graham Rawle. To create this full length full-length novel the author used fragments from women's magazines of the 1950s. What I found particularly enchanting was how the use of vocabulary from the 50s demonstrated how typography and language has evolved and changed since then."

Lynne Taylor, who manages our children's programmes. "My favourite read of 2009 was the Suspicions of Mr Whicher. I loved it because of the sense of history, the atmosphere, the mystery, and the grisly murder story which was REAL! It's quite close to here, so we went to look at the house from the outside - creepy! I get shivers up my spine every time I think about it."

Natasha Roe, communications consultant who looks after our website and marketing. "_The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society _is not only a contender for best title but is also a beautifully crafted book. The entire narrative is told through letters written by the inhabitants of 1940s occupied Guernsey who form an accidental book club, initially as an excuse to be out after curfew. A touching testimony to the power of reading and friendship in very tough times."

In this issue:

Beverley Ward's contract extended until March 2010
Launches
Spotlight on...... Plymouth
Other HeadSpace Success stories
HeadSpace Creative reading offer
groupthing going great guns
First Light funding opportunity
Evaluation update
Policy and funding updates
Rise in NEETS
Children's and Young People's Minister, Dawn Primarollo backs calls for better information about positive activities for young people
PAYP Friday and Saturday night opening
New organisation - the National Youth Leadership Body
V Involved
Youth Initiative funding available
Out of the Box
Mediabox and First Light funding
Pledge 'RespectSpeakUP'
Project plans!

Beverley Ward's contract extended until March 2010

As you'll all know by now, Liz Roberts has left The Reading Agency and I've taken over the management of the project until the end of the funding in March 2010. As the original consultant who worked on the early stages of the project with Ciara Eastell and Liz, it's been great to come back following maternity leave to see what people have made of the HeadSpace concept. I'm excited to see young people's vision become a reality and to witness the range of excellent provision now available.

Out task for the last 6 months of the project, is to maximise the opportunities for young people and to continue to raise our profile locally, regionally and nationally in order to ensure the sustainability of HeadSpace.

One of my main tasks will be to help you to develop a stronger reading offer to young people in your HeadSpace, so, in addition to being available to support the day-to-day running of the project, I'll also be providing regular bulletins of creative reading ideas as well as a programme of author events.

I look forward to helping you to take your HeadSpace to the next level.

Beverley

Launches

Congratulations to HeadSpace Hartcliffe (Bristol) who launched in May 2009. Their launch event was a great success. You can see photos of their launch on http://groupthing.org/groups/headspace-hartcliffe

Other launches set for the autumn are (provisional dates):

October 1st HeadSpace Burgess Road, Southampton
October 22nd HeadSpace Medway
October 30th HeadSpace Halton

Spotlight on...... Plymouth

This month, the spotlight is on Plymouth. If your HeadSpace would like to be featured in the next newsletter, please let Beverley or Kathleen know.

HeadSpace at Efford Library in Plymouth has enjoyed a full-on summer of activities and events in 2009. Our volunteer Abi has launched a weekly Manga group - Mangako! following a great night at a Tokyopop Manga Re-con, including designing a promotional poster and preparing a launch event. The group wrote, directed, produced and performed a Manga play. HeadSpace Manga group Mangako! have launched their own website which includes more information about the group, upcoming events and recommended Manga for all ages. To have a look at the website click on this link: http://www.mangako.webeden.co.uk

This August we hosted the guitar hero live rock-off competition, a break dancing class in the library and lyric writing with MCLyricL. The young people wrote some great mini-poems using magnetic words and put together a collage of all their photographs taken this summer.

HeadSpace 15-19s posed for a glamorous photo shoot for the local paper's fashion supplement at our James Bond themed event. The library became a casino for one night only and we took part in a Bond quiz hosted by none other than Q.

Last summer HeadSpace Efford set up a blog to talk about their celebration of International Youth Day. The blog is updated regularly by our volunteers Sam and Pete, and by the HeadSpace team with the latest news and reviews. You can subscribe to the blog by email or RSS feed to get the news as it happens. Check out the blog here: http://headspaceefford.wordpress.com

HeadSpace 15-19s movie nights
Next week at HeadSpace we will be hosting our first movie night for 15-19s from 6.30-8pm. The movies have been chosen by the young people and HeadSpace team so that we all get to watch movies we've never seen before. We'll enjoy popcorn and generally chill in the HeadSpace area. We will be showing these (up to 15 certificate) movies: Forest Gump, House of flying daggers, Man on fire, My Sister's Keeper, Transformers,Twilight, Slumdog Millionaire,Top Gun

International Youth Day 2009
In celebration of International Youth Day 2009 HeadSpace took part in a streetdance workshop at the library hosted by Toby Gorniak, from the streetfactory studio. We all learned some new moves, including streetdance steps, flips and tricks. Sam and Pete were a great partnership on the dancefloor, showing off their stavros-flatley style moves! We are looking forward to visiting the new streetfactory studio as a group this autumn.

MCLyricl travelled from London to host a lyric and writing workshop. We really enjoyed the warm up exercises, which showed us how to be more creative with our lyrics and vocals. Later we looked at rhyming words, similies, onomatopoeia, idioms and alliteration and used them in our lyrics. Here are some of the examples:
What if I did some rhymen? What if I did some farmen? What if I was me? What if I could just be?
As quick as lightening, as cool as ice, as hard as nailz...
What if life sang, what if what if, dang!
We ended the session writing some bitesize stories, MCLyricl gave us the first and the final sentence of this example:

A girl and a boy were at a campfire party, but someone spilt some lit coal on the grass and it caught alight. Tom put his jumper over his friend Rose so she wouldn't choke. The smoke filled the air as they were finding cover. They stayed close as a heavy wind started to blow and when the smoke cleared they held hands and looked at each other...
We'll be sharing all of our raps and stories at HeadSpace next Tuesday.
Thanks to Europe Direct Information Service for funding our workshops and to Plymouth Evening Herald for their support in promoting and covering the event. Look out for more workshops and events at HeadSpace Efford this year.

Emma Sheriff, Plymouth


Other HeadSpace Success stories

In Crawley we've been running a weekly HeadSpace evening since April and get about 10 teenagers (mostly girls!) per session. At the moment the group is working on writing and filming a zombie movie but manga drawing and book buys have also been successful, and I'd definitely recommend smoothie making during the summer. Future plans include war-gaming sessions in the hope of luring more boys and a Twilight party night with quizzes and music (credit to High Wycombe HeadSpace, I stole this last idea from them). Seeing the confidence of the group improve over the weeks has been fantastic and a couple of teens have emerged as real spokespeople for the rest of the group.

Lucy Gill, Crawley

So much has been happening over the past couple of months with Swindon HeadSpace! Firstly Donna Nicholson has taken on the role as HeadSpace co-ordinator in place of Sandra Seaman; she will be supporting me to manage the HeadSpace area for the life of the project. To promote the project plus Swindon Libraries in general, we recently went to The Mela and re-created the HeadSpace 'chill zone', where people could sit on a beanbag and read a book or magazine, relax and find out about all the exciting things that go on in libraries. We gave out goody bags to young people passing our way, which contained HeadSpace badges, card wallets, bookmarks, pens, plus leaflets on our summer events. The day was extremely successful, and the sunshine certainly helped!

Coming up we have events happening over the summer; this includes an art event on 20th August, a superhero and comic book event, which includes a quiz and a storyboard workshop on 22nd August, and on 25th we're holding a drama workshop in partnership with Swindon Young Actors. These events are all day, and will be held where the Anne Frank exhibition was held in the Central Library - lunch will be included for participants. As well as this, we're having a poetry competition; it can be on any topic, and two submissions can be made per young person; the deadline for this is 19th August and should be handed in to the Central Library.

In other news, young people on the steering group have requested we set up a debating society; therefore starting on 18th August from 5pm-6.30pm there will be fortnightly discussions in our HeadSpace area! The steering group itself has broken up for the summer, and will reconvene on 2nd September from 5pm-7pm.

Anish Harrison, Swindon

The first new round of HeadSpaces is beginning with Solihul.

We are opening a new library at Chelmsley Wood in November with Headspace as part of the new building. So just at the beginning really. Our first real consultation took place in July with 25 young people turning up to decide what furniture we would choose and how the area would look. We were also able to let them choose what photographs would be used for the local history area and the new Connect Centre for the council.Although the day had been planned well in advance, having half the library closed the week before to be used as an antiviral collection point left us worrying how our consultation, a children's activity and a meeting for a group of visually impaired elderly users would all fit in. We needn't have worried our young people were great, and took part in all the activities we had planned for them and we had enough pizza and cake to share some with the the elderly group who were nearby. They were kind enough to write a letter to the library manager saying how much they had enjoyed sharing their space with a group of young people and where were they from- well actually the youth offending centre! The designer also enjoyed himself and tried to persuade one of the young men involved that he ought to think about a career in design as he had such good ideas. We used an opening activity of Like/Dislike where young people made a collage from magazines articles of people in the media, food, activities etc that they liked or disliked. This worked really well and gave groups a bit of time to get to know one another and gave the less articulate a place to feel comfortable. So Headspace now planned and we move on to taking two groups to Waterstones to choose some of the resources and planning our launch event.

Chris Turner, Solihull

HeadSpace Creative reading offer

HeadSpace has proved really successful at building new opportunities to engage the hard to reach in libraries but it seems that, collectively, we're not providing as much as we'd like in the way of a creative reading offer. Many of you have identified that this is an area you want to improve on, so we're in the process of putting together a creative reading bulletin to offer some ideas.

The aim is to produce a monthly bulletin with a specific focus on e.g. reading groups, literacy, books and film etc The bulletin will contain some short exercises that you can use directly with young people, some project suggestions and some tips from Beverley Ward, yourselves and/or other professionals. The intention is to post the bulletin on the professional side of groupthing but it will also be made available to any authority who hasn't subscribed to groupthing. In the long-term, once HeadSpace funding has expired, all access to offers such as this would be through groupthing.

Alongside the bulletin, we're excited to be able to offer you a range of author events and projects through TRA's Children's Reading Partners scheme. So far we're expecting to be able to offer author events, writing workshops, graphic novel workshops, focus groups with publishers, opportunities for work experience with publishers, online writing projects and competitions, in addition to some free books for your HeadSpace. Offers such as these will be, where possible, linked to the monthly theme (e.g. we're planning work with Barrington Stoke and Ransom publishers alongside our bulletin on literacy), however offers will inevitably also come through on ad adhoc basis. Some will be open for pitching and some may be targeted directly at specific HeadSpace sites if there are geographical or other mitigating factors.

In the near future, we hope to be able to post information about the range of authors available on groupthing so that your young people can browse for prospective events. In the meantime, if there's something you and your young people would particularly like, please let us know, as this will help with planning and will give publishers a better idea of what to offer to us. For instance, we have links at the moment with 13 publishers so it is possible that one of your groups' favourite authors is on our list of available writers. We may also be able to help with providing events focused on boys, literacy, manga etc

The first creative reading bulletin will be on groupthing from 16th September. Just look on the professional side for the HeadSpace Creative Reading blog.

groupthing going great guns

The majority of HeadSpace sites have now signed up to groupthing along with a large number of library authorities, including the whole of the north-west region.

If you haven't already done so, why not get your HeadSpace young people to set up their own groupthing group? There will be more tips on this in the Creative Reading Bulletin.

Keep your eye on the professional side of groupthing as there are a range of interesting blogs from authors, publishers and other professionals on subjects as diverse as How to use Twitter, booking a poet for your library and working with graphic novels. If you'd like to submit your own blog entry about HeadSpace, please let us know.

In the autumn new creative reading and author offers will be coming through groupthing such as the opportunity to take part in poetry competitions and online focus groups or to interview authors and develop online stories with writers such as Sara Starbuck.

First Light funding opportunity

First Light provides funding for film-making and media projects.

The Reading Agency is putting in a bid on behalf of HeadSpace to develop scriptwriting projects with young people.The funds would enable your young people to work with a professional scriptwriter for a number of sessions. The deadline for bids is 24th November so, if your young people would like to be part of this opportunity, please let us know by the end of September so that we have time to work up the bid. It would be helpful if you could mention any particular ideas you have for how a scriptwriter would work with your group and any end products that you'd like to produce.

Evaluation update

Thank you for continuing to provide the evaluation data that we request from you. We need this to justify our funding to The Big Lottery.

Outcomes 7-10
Several people have said that they find it hard to evaluate the 'soft outcomes' (7-10) for HeadSpace. Please click here for a template for one-to-one interviews with young people which might help you.There is no pressure to use this form but it's there as a resource if you find it useful.

Use of HeadSpace
Externally we're not expected to provide information about the numbers of young people using HeadSpace but it has come to my attention that we may be missing an important piece of evidence of the success of HeadSpace. If you can find an appropriate mechanism that isn't too arduous for you, it would be great to find out how many young people are typically using the space when it's not specifically being used by your group.

On a related note, the original idea of the Book Waiters was to have young people manning the space on non-HeadSpace nights. We'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried this approach, or feels they could give it a try. It seems a shame that most people seem only to be offering one dedicated HeadSpace night each week and volunteers would be able to broaden this offer as well as monitoring the use of the space.

Next evaluation data required 9 October 2009.

Policy and funding updates

Rise in NEETS

You'll probably have heard on the news that the numbers of young people not in work, education or training are rising. At the latest count 835,000 or 17.6 per cent of 18-24 year olds are classed as NEET. The figure for 16-18 year olds is only slightly lower at 11.9%

HeadSpace offers an opportunity to engage with this hard to reach target group, providing positive activities and a potential route, via volunteering, back into education and training. It is important the councillors and youth providers in your local area know about the important role that HeadSpace can play in addressing this key government priority.

Children's and Young People's Minister, Dawn Primarollo backs calls for better information about positive activities for young people

Recent reports have shown that young people want to engage with positive activities but don't know where to access them.

The research has also revealed other reasons preventing young people getting involved in activities. These include:
• Young people see organised activities as something reserved only for the very sporty or talented kids;
• Peer group pressure - teenagers prioritise friends and leisure time over taking part in activities and are often put off if their friends don't take part;
• Low self confidence and lack of self belief in their ability to take part.

Dawn Primarollo has called for local authorities to make sure they are publicising their positive activities widely and in the right places.

Make sure HeadSpace is included in any new publicity that your area is producing.

PAYP Friday and Saturday night opening

There is still a big push for youth provision to be open on a Friday and Saturday night and there may still be funding available in some areas. Keep up to date with Friday and Saturday night openings in your area.

New organisation - the National Youth Leadership Body

The National Youth Leadership Body runs a scheme called The Youth of Today which aims to offer young people leadership opportunities such as the chance to shadow a councillor and to contribute to policy debates. Young people can also access leadership training. There is funding attached but unfortunately the deadline has now passed. It looks likely that more funding will be available so keep your eyes on their website and their blog at www.theyouthoftoday.org

Also on their site is information about Young Achievers Award. Young people can be nominated for their contributions and achievements until 29th September so if you've got an exceptional HeadSpace volunteer, have a look at this site.

V Involved

V Involved is the national body for youth volunteering. Several HeadSpaces have made positive links with V who have recruited volunteers and handled much of the administration associated with volunteering. The V Fifty Award is also a new accreditation scheme that could be used in HeadSpace. Young people do all of the recording themselves online and need to complete 50 hours of volunteering to qualify for an award.

V has also launched a series of awards that young volunteers can be nominated for. Nominations for this year have just closed but the awards are likely to continue next year. Young people winning awards is great for their self-esteem and great for the profile of HeadSpace as well.

V funding opportunities:

V Cashpoint, provides young people (16-25) with funding to develop their own volunteering projects. Young people in HeadSpace could apply so long as the idea they had was new and had come from them.

V also provides other funding opportunities. Keep an eye on their site at http://www.vinspired.com/v/funding

Youth Initiative funding available

Funding is available from the British Council for projects that are youth-led and which have a European dimension.

Young people 15-30 can apply for the funding of up to £8000 for projects that last between 3 and 18 months. It's just a case of being creative about what a 'European dimension' means - sessions on European cooking, literature, politics or cultural activities could all be possibilities. Emma Sheriff in Plymouth has had European funding for some of her activities.

For more information see:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/connectyouth-programmes-youth-initiatives.htm

Training opportunity for frontline managers of young people's services

FPM training are running a Management Development Programme for leaders of services to young people. They have indicated an interest in libraries applying for the training which is free and looks like a great opportunity to develop skills for managing young people's services.

For more information see their website www.fpmonline.co.uk and click on the link to Services for Young People. Or contact them directly on 0116 2495000.

Your Integrated Youth Support Service Manager should also have information about the training. Beverley also has some leaflets that she can send you if you are interested.

Out of the Box

Out of the Box projects are running across the country and may be operating in your area (indeed you may be running one). They are small projects based on youth and library partnership, looking into ways to engage non-readers. Find out it there's one nearby and share your learning.

Mediabox and First Light funding

Mediabox provide funding for young people 13-19 to make creative media projects for film, tv, radio, web etc

Mixmedia is a new strand of Mediabox funding providing £5-20,000 for youth-led projects that focus on community cohesion.

First Light is providing funding for scriptwriters to work with young people.

For more information about these funding schemes see:
http://www.firstlightonline.co.uk/funding/

Pledge "RespectSpeakUP"

The Respect? Campaign is led by eight 16-24 year olds who form the Respect Young People's Advisory Group. It aims to improve the portrayal of young people in the media.

The campaign has been going since 2005 and is now entering a new phase to encourage young people to speak up in the media. They're asking 1,000 young people to sign a pledge to speak up when they see a story in the news that affects them using new media tools.

Postcards to promote the campaign can be obtained from media@youthnet.org

Young people can sign up at www.pledgebank.com/RespectSpeakUp

or join the Facebook group.

Young people's media portrayal is alarmingly negative and HeadSpace presents young people with the opportunity to improve their media image through the promotion of their work. Joining this campaign links naturally to our targets of empowering young people and also to reading. Why not spend an evening looking at media coverage of young people and then respond with letters and emails to editors?

And finally....

Project plans!

Thanks to those authorities who have provided us with project plans for 2009-2010. These were originally due in July. Sorry to pester you to do yet more admin but it will really help me to be able to target offers and support in your direction if you send me your project plan by the end of September 2009 at the latest.

Thanks so much,
Beverley and Kathleen

Call: 0871 750 1207

Email: info@readingagency.org.uk

Address Free Word, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA

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If you have a specific enquiry about one of our projects then you will find the project manager's email in the Resources section of the relevant project page.

If you have an enquiry about ordering resources email Shop.

Whichever way you choose to get in touch we look forward to hearing from you.

We've come a long way since we first started and are involved in some exciting stuff.

We run a potent, magical mixture of big national partnership schemes, library reading promotions, projects that target specific readers and run our own research and publishing programme. Our initial staff base of two full-time people has multiplied by 800 per cent! Our virtual office is now a physical one.

We are not stopping here though. We've also got plans for strengthening our partnerships, we have launched some exciting new work with children and young people through our groupthing website, Participate and Chatterbooks projects, our adult literacy work continues to grow and develop through projects like the Six Book Challenge and a we have a publications, research and events programme that all comes under the banner - New Thinking.

If you'd like to know more or are interested in working with us, please contact us.

Reading for Life has grown out of the hugely successful National Year of Reading. So that we can continue to share all the good practice around reading that came out of the National Year of Reading leading agencies in the field have come together to promote the benefits of reading.

Reading for Life promotions

The Sun are about to launch the Great Family Escape promotion which encourages families taking holidays at Haven Holiday Parks to get in to reading. They'll get a pre-holiday reading pack with a free audio book, a reading welcome pack in their chalet, plus reading activities on site run by Haven staff. Families who go and join the public library at the end of their holiday will be entered into a prize draw.

Marmite are launching a major reading promotion at the end of August. It will be a big media campaign linked to 'love it or hate it' and stressing the power and benefits of reading.

The Iceland promotion has now closed - it generated over 100,000 redemptions of vouchers. All these families received the Iceland Horrid Henry booklet with library membership form included.

Follow up SCL survey

We'll be surveying SCL members during August to find the latest information about library led cross cutting reading strategies. We're meeting members of SCL in September to discuss the survey findings and agree next steps in supporting libraries to further this work.

A reminder that SCL and The Reading Agency suggested five things all library services might do following the National Year of Reading.

• Use NYR momentum to establish a cross cutting local authority reading strategy, supported by a high level steering group and co-ordinator
• Renew the push to get library reading work/outcomes featuring in Local Area Agreements. The Reading Agency's new training course 'Making Reading Count' supporting this will be running on 22nd October in Birmingham. For more details see www.readingagency.org.uk
• Use Reading For Life resources, including the new research base and local authority support materials, to target audiences most in need of support(www.readingforlife.org.uk)
• Review use of established national reading programmes like Summer Reading Challenge to reaching priority audiences
• If still requiring proof of address, work with the SCL Executive to agree simpler membership systems, and open the way to universal membership.

Through the Reading for Life website you can find lots of fun reading ideas and events as well as resources for professionals.

We are really delighted to be partnering with The National Literacy Trust to lead this venture. The other organisations who are supporting Reading for Life are:

Arts Council England
Booktrust
The Campaign for Learning
The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education
ContinYou
Department for Children, Schools and Families
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
The National Youth Agency
The Random House Group
Scholastic UK
Volunteer Reading Help
plus local authorities across England.

We are also very fortunate to have the support of commercial partners including Wiseman Dairies, Iceland, Costcutter, Marmite, Walker Books.

At a SCL Executive meeting we reviewed the learning from the National Year of Reading, looked at the emerging 2009 picture and agreed next steps. We wanted to share those conclusions with you and you can download a summary sheet Libraries and Reading - what next?

We will continue to post updates on these pages so keep checking back.

We welcome people into our workforce who are enthusiastic, creative and have a passion for reading and the written word - in all its marvellous forms. We regularly post vacancies on this website for both staff and consultants with a wide range of skills from technical IT to creative project management skills.

If there are no vacancies advertised at the moment, then please check back soon.

If you want to be one of the first to find out when we have a vacancy, then please sign up for our email job alerts

Interns

We run an internship programme and recruit twice a year - usually in March and September. If you sign up for our intern alerts we will email you when we are recruiting.

Equal opportunities and diversity

The Reading Agency welcomes applications from people with an ethnic minority background and people with disabilities, as they are currently under represented in our workforce. Any disabled applicant who meets the criteria set out in the person specification will be shortlisted for interview.

We are committed to equal opportunities in all aspects of our work. We are committed to ensuring that no contractor, job applicant or employee is discriminated against on the grounds of race, colour, age, gender or gender re-assignment, nationality or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, parental status, political or religious beliefs, disability, marital status or trade union membership.

Please help us to make sure that we are meeting these commitments by filling out our equal opportunities monitoring form. We ask everyone who applies for a job as well as those who work for us to do this. Thank you for your help.

Liz Cleaver

When elected: March 2009

Professional background: Liz worked for the BBC for 25 years in a variety of roles from radio and television production to launching BBC Knowledge, the forerunner of BBC 4 and setting up the interactive capability for all factual and learning programmes. As Controller BBC Learning, she was responsible for all learning activity across the BBC. Main focus on delivering ambitious learning campaigns that aim to inspire and support millions of people to take action beyond the broadcast of BBC TV and radio programmes, community activity and work with partner organisations. These include RaW which aims to motivate people to improve their literacy skills, and Breathing Places, a campaign linked to the BBC's natural history output and encouraging mass participation in action to improve the local environment.

Why The Reading Agency: Passionate about reading.

A favourite book: An impossible question but when forced to choose it was To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. I first read it when I was 17 and became intrigued by her style.

Vice chair

Vivien Griffiths OBE

When elected: 2002

Professional background: I spent virtually all of my professional career as a librarian in Birmingham, where I specialised in work with children and young people. I was President of the Society of Chief Librarians during 2000-2001 and a Board member of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). I became an independent consultant in 2001 and since then, I have edited the Start with the Child report for CILIP and the Fulfilling Their Potential report for the MLA, as well as a variety of other commissions and conference presentations.

Why The Reading Agency: Reading and libraries have been a fundamental part of my life, since I was a child and it has been a pleasure and a great privilege to be a part of The Reading Agency's success.

A favourite book: Miss Garnett's Angel by Salley Vickers, partly because I live for part of the year in Italy and I love Venice, where the book is set and partly because its underlying message is that it's never too late to make a radical change in your life, which I find uplifting and inspiring.

Trustees

Malorie Blackman, author

Professional background: Malorie Blackman has written over 50 books for children and young adults, including the Noughts and Crosses sequence of novels (Noughts and Crosses won the Children's Book Award as well as being included in the top 100 of the BBC Big Read), The Stuff of Nightmares, Thief and Hacker.

Her work has appeared on screen, with Pig-Heart Boy, which was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, being adapted into a BAFTA winning TV serial.


In 2005, Malorie was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her distinguished contribution to the world of children's books. In 2008, she was then honoured with an OBE for her services to Children's Literature.

Why The Reading Agency:

A favourite book:

John Brown

When elected: May 2009


Professional background: I spent 20 years in the venture capital and private equity industry, latterly as the Deputy Managing Director of Cinven. I left Cinven in 2001 to spend time working in the voluntary sector and since then have been either the treasurer or trustee of a range of organisations including UnLtd, Box Clever Theatre Company, Evelyn Oldfield Unit, London Detainee Support Group, First Rung and Islington Boat Club.



Why The Reading Agency: I'm enthused by the exciting work The Reading Agency has done in such an important area.



A favourite book: Surviving The Killing Fields by Haing S Ngor - a gripping and uplifting true account of how one man came through terror with his humanity intact and the ability to develop a new life

Janene Cox, assistant director culture and libraries, Staffordshire County Council Library

When elected: June 2008

Professional background: I began my professional life as a librarian in the Central Library in Birmingham. I have also managed libraries in Northamptonshire and Staffordshire, where I became Head of Libraries in 2005. I really like my current job and working with my Heads of Service we have put together a really strong cultural offer for the people of Staffordshire.

Why The Reading Agency: The Reading Agency actively promotes and encourages reading and supports libraries to deliver innovative and creative reading programmes. This is something which I wanted to be involved in developing, steering and advocating.

A favourite book: Jamie Oliver, The Naked Chef, one that I constantly return to, that demonstrates the power of language and reading to stimulate, enthuse and to get you to do different things - and which you share with lots of other people!

Nicky Parker, head of transformation, Manchester City Council

When elected: From the beginning

Professional background: I managed libraries, the archives service, the County Records Office and the Library Theatre for Manchester City Council. I have been Chair of ASCEL, I am an elected member of the General Assembly of the University of Manchester and a member of the Advisory Council on Libraries. I am also a member of the Executive of the Society of Chief Librarians, chair the NW Youth Library Board and a member of the National Youth Library Board which is improving library services to teenagers. I have recently been invited to participate in the Secretary of State's National Review of Public Libraries.

Why The Reading Agency: I had been watching what The Reading Agency was up to for a while and really liked its collaborative creative approach.

A favourite book: An Equal Music by Vikram Seth because I'm a big music fan so this really appealed and some of it is set inside Manchester Central Library!

Joseph O'Reilly, director and founder, First Read

When elected: May 2009


Professional background: I have over 15 years experience working for public interest organisations and causes. Originally from Australia I've worked in Asia, Africa, North America and the Caribbean and have been living in London for the last ten years. Most recently I've been working to support education and literacy in developing countries and this led me to establish First Read.

Why The Reading Agency: I share The Reading Agency's belief that reading can transform lives. Reading's had a transformative effect on me and I've seen how it's changed the lives of countless people around the world with whom I've worked.

A favourite book: My favourite books are the Fire novels by Henning Mankell. The books are based on the true story of Sophia an indomitable young girl in war-torn Mozambique. Written for young adults these books open up the world through an accessible story written with unflinching honesty.

John Readman, divisional director children and young people's services, London Borough of Lambeth

When elected: May 2009

Professional background: I am implementing the change agenda for children's services across a wide partnership of organisations in Lambeth. I have a keen interest and background in supporting literature and literacy development and was an active librarian for 15 years before taking up more senior roles in children's services.

Why The Reading Agency: I have always been passionate about what The Reading Agency does in supporting reader and reading development and in supporting libraries in the unique role they play.

A favourite book: Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf because this is a great book and by far Woolf's most accessible, and I have wonderful memories of being a student and reading it together with three fellow students in 24 hours, consuming much cake and wine on the way.

Jenny Stevens, freelance media/education consultant

When elected: May 2009

Professional background: A New Zealander, I trained as a high school teacher but have worked mostly in adult education. I directed a pioneering adult literacy scheme in London and co-directed the national Right to Read campaign. I then moved to the BBC to work on its first major adult literacy project and subsequently embarked on a TV production career. I was the first Head of Education at the BBC World Service. For the last 10 years I have worked as a freelance consultant and project manager, specialising in educational and literacy projects.


A favourite book: The End of the Golden Weather by Bruce Mason: a seminal piece of New Zealand literature. It evokes a childhood similar to my own, with the underlying theme of growing up and consequent loss of innocence - the golden weather.

Observers

The senior management team

Chief executive, Miranda McKearney

Director of resources and strategic operations, Penny Shapland-Chew

Director of finance (and company secretary), Maureen McCulloch

Reading Agency people

Our work is undertaken by a network of skilled project workers and support staff. Some are employed by the organisation and others work on a freelance basis. The project managers responsible for each project are listed on the relevant project page so please get in touch with them if you would like any more information about our work.

You can also Contact us. We'd be very pleased to hear from you.

Arts Council England provides our revenue funding.

We've also had particularly significant support from MLA, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Skills for Life Unit), Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Big Lottery Fund and the Reading Partners' publishers.

If you’re an organisation with an interest in reading

We’re interested in sharing ideas, audiences and action. We can help bring different partners together, and we can unlock the power and reach of the public library network and its millions of readers.

If you run a library service

We’re a national organisation that works with library staff every day. Use our ideas, use our reading programmes, use us as a voice to get your message across to local and national government. Take advantage of our co-ordination skills and our ability to put you in touch with potential partners like publishers.

If you run a business

Getting involved with reading can yield major sponsorship and CSR benefits, and build employees’ skills and communication. We’ve run reading based programmes with Orange, Ford, ASDA, Unilever, Marks & Spencer, American Express and others . Do Contact us.

If you’re a reader

Look out for the things we help make happen, often in libraries or online. Got children? Try the Summer Reading Challenge and Chatterbooks reading groups. A teenager? Try HeadSpace teenage reading spaces. An adult who’s just getting into reading? You’ll find books to enjoy as you build your reading stamina at www.firstchoice.org.uk.. Just wondering what to read next? Look out for our reading promotions at a library near you.

National reading programmes for target audiences
Partnerships
Resources to promote reading
Research and new thinking

National reading programmes for target audiences

We run national reading programmes that help open up the world of reading to key audiences. These have developed from innovative pilots to big programmes shared across the UK, mostly through the library network.

At the moment our work in this area encompasses:
Adult literacy
Young people
Children
Families in prison

Adult literacy
The Vital Link

We run partnerships, book promotions, training and online resources to support libraries and professionals working with adults trying to improve their literacy skills and get into reading. The programme encompasses a new Six Book Challenge and a partnership with Quick Reads.

This is an ambitious area of work and one which we are particularly proud of. The Vital Link, run by The Reading Agency in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, is one of the national programmes funded through Framework for the Future. But we also receive support from the Skills for Life Strategy Unit in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills for our work with adult literacy practitioners.

Young people
Fulfilling Their Potential

Through Fulfilling their Potential we encourage 11 to 19 year-olds to get involved with their local library and have a say. We have already run some very successful pioneering projects which have engaged young people with their local libraries in the north west, Yorkshire and Humberside and the south west. Currently we are doing some extremely exciting work with young people through HeadSpace, a radically new library space shaped by young people, and a new website devised and designed by young people interested in the written word.

At the heart of Fulfilling their Potential is our partnerships. We have a range of positive partnerships which include the National Youth Agency, Association of Senior Children's and Education Librarians (ASCEL), Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) and the Regional Youth Work Units in the north west and Yorkshire and Humberside.

Children
The Summer Reading Challenge and Chatterbooks

We believe that it is essential for primary school children to be engaged with reading. Reading is arguably more important than any of the other skills they are taught at this time as it opens up the rest of the curriculum to them.

The Summer Reading Challenge is our largest national programme. Every year the number of children and libraries doing the Summer Reading Challenge has grown and more children are going back to school fired up by the wonderful worlds that reading books can open up to them.

While Chatterbooks, which we run in partnership with Orange, is smaller but also achieving great things by getting children reading books - and talking about them.

Families in prison
The Big Book Share

We've been doing some very important work (we believe) with prison services to promote family reading and help prisoners to stay involved and engaged with their children. Funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Big Book Share supports prisoners to select books and then record themselves reading their chosen titles. This is having some very positive benefits on the education of children with parents in prison.

Some of these programmes are funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) to support the government's strategy for modernising public libraries, Framework for the Future.

Partnerships

We broker and then run partnerships to make magical things happen for readers. Lots of these are between the library network and organisations wanting to reach readers through libraries. They inject skills, resources and sparkle into libraries' offer to local readers.

We have some very exciting creative partnerships at present:

BBC Learning - working with their literacy campaign RaW and environment campaign Breathing Places
BBC Radio
Booked Up
Booktrust Teenage Prize
The Costa Book Awards
Creative Partnerships
Orange
Reading Partners
Channel 4's Richard & Judy Book Club
World Book Day

Resources to promote reading

We create tailor made reading promotions to help professionals working with readers reach and inspire them better. Lots of them are linked to our partnerships and national programmes. We can provide support through our Shop, our project managers and training. At present we are offering the following reading promotions:

For adults
Breathing Places
Discover Nature
Five Minutes
Got kids? Get reading!
Six Book Challenge

For children
Chatterbooks
Summer Reading Challenge

For young people
New website

We have on line databases to help with stock promotion and development, and planning author events and promotions with publishers. You'll find links to these at www.firstchohoicebooks.org.uk and Events calendar.

We offer support through training, sometimes face to face, sometimes online. At the moment we are running face to face training around Chatterbooks and online training for librarians working with children and young people at www.theirreadingfutures.org.uk.

Research and new thinking

This is a developing area for us. We carry out research into reading and organise discussion events so that we can find out about reading and how it is developing. We then publish our findings.

We are excited by this area of work. It allows us to pull together all the rich first-hand information we have from the projects and partnerships we run with readers. We then use this to contribute to debates about reading. We use it to demonstrate how important reading is and the wonderful difference it can make to people's lives. Our research is also incredibly valuable when we are planning our own projects.

You can read more in New thinking.

We try new things out, like reading groups with a radio strand, or a new website to attract teenage readers.

We're used as a resource by people working directly with readers. We can provide training and advice as well as toolkits, websites and promotional materials.

We use our connections to join up organisations interested in promoting reading. For example, we help libraries form partnerships with major organisations like publishers and the BBC.

We have a research and events programme which leads to new evidence and thinking about the impact of reading. We're also active in public policy and advocacy, working with government departments and think tanks. And we're experienced at working with the corporate sector, through sponsorship or Corporate Social Responsibility programmes.

If you would like to work with us then we'd be delighted to hear from you - contact us.

If you want to know why we do the things we do see Our approach.

Why? Because we believe that reading can transform people’s lives. The more you read, the more you know. The more you read, the more you imagine. The more you read, the better you understand other people, and the better you connect to them.

We’ve got ideas and the energy to make great things happen. We’ll work with anybody who wants to get more people reading more. Much of our work is with public libraries, but we also team up with prisons, publishers, unions, businesses, broadcasters, and others.

“What stands out is The Reading Agency’s passion for reading and readers.” Kate Mosse, bestselling author