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In communities

Community Shared Reading groups are open to all. They happen in all kinds of places: libraries, community centres, shops and high-street cafes. Find your nearest group.

If you’re looking for an opportunity to develop your love of reading and start something new for your local community, then there are lots of ways to get involved.

In health and social care

For many of our Readers, Shared Reading helps to improve mental wellbeing and physical health. Our work supports people living with conditions including dementia, complex mental health issues and chronic pain, as well as those recovering from addiction.

Through collaborations with hospitals, NHS trusts, GPs and clinical commissioning groups, Shared Reading helps people stay well in their community. 

Shared Reading can be embedded in NHS services through staff training, enhancing the patient experience and developing the workforce to deliver creative activities with their service users. 

With people in the criminal justice system

We’ve worked in the criminal justice system for over a decade and currently support weekly groups in more than 30 prisons and approved premises across the UK.

Our groups offer a space for prisoners to feel safe, and to think and connect in new ways. This helps them better understand themselves, and others, resulting in improved wellbeing, and positive changes in thinking and behaviour, which supports rehabilitation.

Find out more

Shared Reading enables offenders to feel differently about themselves and others – bringing shifts in perspective which are part of the process of reform leading to rehabilitation.

Dr David Fearnley, Executive Medical Director, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board

With children and young people

Our work aims to inspire a lifelong love of reading among children and young people. 

Many of the children we read with come with low confidence and may struggle with educational, behavioural, social or emotional challenges as a result of difficult early experiences. 

However, through Shared Reading, we see the positive impact that helping children and families to develop a strong, life-long bond with books and reading can have.

Storyhunters

International Shared Reading

In 2008, we launched our ground-breaking Read to Lead training programme to give people in the UK and around the world the power to start building their own Reading Revolution.

This Shared Reading movement can now be found in countries including Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United States

Find out more

'I am so proud to be able to call myself a trainer of Shared Reading. It has been one of my greatest experiences and achievements this last year.’

Train the Trainer Graduate, Denmark