Meet Anton Clarke, Director of Social Enterprises

‘The Reader has made a meaningful difference to the lives of many people’ 

Director of Social Enterprises Anton Clarke looks back over what the social enterprises at Liverpool’s Calderstones Park have achieved over the last 10 years and reveals his dream to create more places, based on an environment like Calderstones CIC across Liverpool City Region. 

“We want to bring community back into underused assets across the city region where you can target culture and economy - based on an environment like Calderstones. This involves working closely with local authorities and funders – we’d love to see this happen across the wider city region. We can create jobs, training, experiences as well as a boost to the local economy” - Anton Clarke

This autumn Calderstones Mansion House Community Interest Company (CIC) is celebrating its 10th anniversary on the site of the restored historic Mansion House in Liverpool’s Calderstones Park. 

The Grade II Georgian property, originally built in 1828 for a lead shot manufacturer, became council offices in the 1970s before falling into disrepair. The Reader won a public tender for its release and after raising funds embarked on a major restoration project. It is now a unique public space with a social purpose, open to all.   

Since 2015 the park has been home to the UK’s largest Shared Reading charity which now runs 515 free Shared Reading groups across the city region and wider UK where people connect and share experiences using stories and poems. There is no pressure to talk or read aloud.  

Social enterprises on-site include two cafes, Reader Bookshop, the Storybarn, and Ice Cream Parlour, plus a year-round events programme – which all reinvest into the charity’s social mission. 

Over the last decade Anton Clarke, Director of Social Enterprises has overseen the CIC successfully grow from £50,000 to nearly £2 million in annual revenue, the employment of 400 staff and the delivery of 5,000 free meals during Covid. 

In the last 12 months, the sites have received 440,000 visits there have been 140,528 cups of coffee sold in the cafes and 18,629 visits to The Storybarn across 363 days of the year. 

Anton feels establishing a culture whereby staff genuinely want to help people is key. 

He said: “When the Mansion House was locked down in Covid a local man used to come to the park for his daily walk at 9.30am and we used to leave a cup of coffee outside for him. 

“One day he told me his wife had passed away early on in the pandemic, and his only social interaction was with The Reader. He spoke about how this small act of kindness and community spirit had helped him through a tough time.  

“The Reader has made a meaningful difference to the lives of many people. We are not self-serving and do not get paid a lot of money. We look after our community.” 

The CIC is also committed to providing skills, employment and opportunities for people with barriers to the workplace – for those who are care-experienced, have severe disabilities and are asylum seekers, as well as people who have been out of the job market for a long time. 

Zainab, a college student and Front of House Team Leader, 22, has been an employee at The Reader Cafe for four years. She moved to Liverpool with her mum and three younger sisters from Iraq where girls face significant gender-based discrimination, particularly over access to education. She is currently studying Criminology and Law at City of Liverpool College. 

She said: “I am very thankful to the team here – they made me feel welcome, especially four years ago as someone who had come miles to live in another country and spoke broken English. It was amazing and meant a lot; I felt I was living in my own family.” 

Shauna, initially came to work at The Reader through WorkFit, the Down's Syndrome Association's employment programme. This tailored service is dedicated to training employers about the learning profile of the individual who has Down’s syndrome so that they can be supported in the workplace.  

The 33-year-old from Mossley Hill, who is a Special Olympian swimmer, has been working as a paid employee in the Reader Cafe for nine years. 

Shauna said: “My job involves serving tables and serving people. I met people my age and younger with Down’s syndrome when I was doing my work experience, some I knew already, and have made good friends on the staff. I like the customer’s here too, they’re friendly – one of the customers always comes in to say hello.” 

Shauna’s dad John Hogan added: “Shauna works from 9am to 11.30am, five hours a week, and is popular with the customers. It’s a great scheme and has offered her a little bit of independence – she is in control of that budget and can buy clothes or something nice. It opens choices. 

“The Reader has now made her a permanent member of staff – it's quite a big thing and it demonstrates the way Shauna has fitted in. Everyone knows her – she's quite outgoing. Over the years it has really helped her to improve confidence and her self-worth. 

“Only 5% of people with learning disabilities are paid for employment in the UK. What The Reader is doing is very important.” 

Establishing a supply kitchen in Liverpool during Covid 

In 2015, The Reader opened the Storybarn and Ice Cream Parlour. It also created a temporary cafe while the restoration of the Mansion House was underway. Just months before the pandemic struck the building officially launched in 2019, housing a brand-new cafe, Reading Rooms, heritage exhibition and event spaces. 

Looking back Anton said: “Covid hit after we’d only been open for just six or seven months. It was hard. One of the charity’s first actions was to continue paying our 60 staff – then the furlough scheme was announced, and we were able to continue to exist.  

“We pivoted our operation to be a supply kitchen for care homes, children’s residential and supported living. We did that for free and we included poetry – cultural sustenance. We provided 5,000 meals. The project was called Bread and Roses. People were just so grateful. The CIC team wanted to do it and the chef’s loved it, even though we knew we were making a difference in a very small way. 

“The other thing we did during Covid was ‘Eat Out to Help Out’. We made our Mansion House Garden into a 300-seat restaurant. For a lot of people, it was a joy being able to safely socially distance and make connection. It was great for morale in the team too.”  

But Anton admits there have been difficult decisions too. 

He said: “We had the opportunity to open a city centre restaurant in December 2022 on Mount Pleasant. But just as we took over the war between Ukraine and Russia kicked off and energy bills went up 40% - we couldn’t make it work. We would’ve made a loss and so decided to close it because it was not viable. It was gutting.” 

What next? 

Looking to the future Anton says he would like to “create more place-based communities across Liverpool City Region based on the model we have at Calderstones”. 

He said: “We want to bring community back into underused assets where you can target culture and economy. This involves working closely with local authorities and funders – we’d love to see this happen across the wider City Region. We can create jobs, training, experiences as well as a boost to the local economy. 

“A model that combines both commerciality and social mission really engages the hyper local community and enables us to support people in the most real and relevant way.” 

About The Reader   

The Reader is a charity that uses the power of literature and reading aloud to transform lives across the UK. Our volunteers and staff bring people together to read great stories and poems – creating powerful moments of connection. We call this Shared Reading.   

In a world that feels increasingly divided, and with increased pressures on our mental health, Shared Reading offers us time and space to share what matters to us.   

We read with children, families, adults in libraries and community spaces, people in care homes, people with physical and mental health conditions, those coping with or recovering addiction and people in the criminal justice system. Our work improves wellbeing, reduces loneliness and helps us find new meaning in our lives.   

The Reader is supported using public funding by Arts Council England, players of the People's Postcode Lottery, and Garfield Weston Foundation, as well as The National Lottery Community Fund.  

• Find out more at thereader.org.uk / @thereaderorg 

• The Reader - Charity Number 1126806 (SCO43054 Scotland)