Dear Suffolk Book League Members

 

The Reader has funding through the Suffolk Community Foundation to offer training for volunteers and partner organisation staff, giving them the skills and firing their enthusiasm to run informal discussions about stories that are read aloud.  I’ve attached two testimonies.

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• Reader Story: Pro-socially modelling is the perspective of an Approved Premises manager who ran a Shared Reading group.  She says:   

 

“This group is a completely different dynamic to everything else these men do and one of the things I said to them at the start was, ‘We’re absolutely not here to talk about anybody’s offending history’. It’s a time of the week where they don’t think about all their issues and difficulties and actually it’s the same for me. It slows things down in a mindful way and brings people’s anxiety levels down.”

 

• Reader Story: A much richer picture is the perspective of an AP resident, who says:  

 

“I enjoy the interaction, all the different points of view from people and different takes on a passage or a poem. It’s good to feed your feelings and opinions into the group. You may see something that they haven’t and it’s a two-way thing - somebody else may pick up on something that you haven’t and they’ll voice that and I think ‘Oh yes, I didn’t see that before but now I do’. And then it becomes part of a discussion. You don’t get any of that if you are reading on your own, do you?”

 

The training is modular.  We are very pleased with the response of participants to our training via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

 

I’m sure you’d like to know more about the impact of Shared Reading and why it might be a rewarding use of your time.   I’d be delighted to discuss this. 

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

All best wishes

 

Amanda