Reader Project Story: Shared Reading at Toxteth Library, Liverpool

Funded by Big Lottery Fund and Liverpool CCG, 2009 - 2015

The Reader provided a full-time Reader-in-Residence based at Toxteth Library in Liverpool, focusing on building community through Shared Reading groups.

The Reader-in-Residence set up various long and short-term weekly Shared Reading groups in a variety of local settings as well as in the library. These groups operate within the Toxteth boundary (L8), plus other non-regular reader development activities run in the area.

As part of the project, we read with people living with physical health problems, mental health problems including people with dementia, homeless people and unpaid carers, and people from a varied range of different cultural backgrounds. Group members at Toxteth reported increased self-confidence and self-esteem.

“Without the sense of worth and well-being I have received from being a group member I don’t think I could ever have gone back to work. I’ve been unemployed for nearly five years and have suffered with depression for longer than that so I know first-hand the power that these groups have to change someone’s life”

Shared Reading group member, Toxteth Library.