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LEARNER STORY
Helen, Charlotte & Chris
- LIBRARY
- Newcastle UK · Public libraries →
- COURSE
- Reading for Wellbeing: Community-based 3 learners - full team
- GOAL
- Give the team the confidence and practical tools to reach isolated, grieving and lonely readers across the North East - and to keep the project growing.
Reading for Wellbeing is a course designed to support workers who are delivering a project - founded by Ann Cleeves - across 10 local authorities in the North East of England. The project uses the joy and solace that reading can offer to reach people who are grieving, lonely, ill or in distress.
The course gives learners early support for that difficult work in the form of practical tools, book knowledge and reader-centred practice. The first cohort ran in 2021/22 and fed back into a refreshed version, which went live in February 2024. Six new teams across the North East are now working through it.
The three Newcastle staff featured here are the first full team in this second tranche to complete the course. Their mentor, Fiona Edwards, has been impressed throughout - by their openness, their creative thinking, and their dedication to filling gaps in their skills before they started work with readers.
They come from different professional backgrounds and bring different skills and experience, which gives them a powerful starting point. All three are empathetic and aware of how difficult - and how rewarding - introducing reading into different lives can be. They used the practical tasks creatively, stayed focused on the individuals they'll be working with, and went the extra mile every time to make the most of the preparation.
One creative outcome of their work together is Steps and Stories, an audiobook walking group the team has started. To learn more about the developing project, get in touch at email.
01 Helen Parker
Helen is an occupational therapist, so she understands very well how to engage with individuals - and she has personal experience of the ebb and flow of a reading life. Her work on the course was perceptive and thoughtful, and she has real skill in engaging with people in an open and direct way. She used the course to widen her book knowledge and build a highly focused capsule collection for an interesting and diverse group of people who would really benefit from her input.
For the task I imagined that I was going along to a local charity that supports people [of all ages] who care for family members/others with a wide range of physical and mental health issues or other difficulties. I challenged myself to reflect on how informal carers exist in all sections of society so while they share common experience, their interests and reference points would be equally diverse, and they will have a range of reasons why they may want to read - to explore, escape, laugh and learn.
02 Charlotte Isherwood
Charlotte's background is in education, and she has a real passion for reading. Her experience as a teacher has made her a methodical planner and a perceptive thinker, and she used the training tasks to start talking to people about their reading life - to powerful effect.
Not coming from a library background it was very useful and good to feel supported and get feedback that I was on the right track. I enjoyed the activities especially using book covers as an ice-breaker and a way in to talk about books. After doing an activity such as 'Love it, loathe it' and chatting about it, I feel quite confident about getting a range of books that a reader could choose from. I'd definitely need to do some research myself for certain groups such as teens and for male readers and keep up to date with other non-book resources and alternative formats.
03 Chris Wilcock
Chris comes to the project from a background in Adult Social Care, and his approach is perceptive throughout. He focused his attention on the needs of the people he wants to work with, so the resources he put together are purposeful and creative. His work on the course was meticulous and responsive, and he built a portfolio that will act as a useful foundation for his role.
I found the discussion around genres and types of books helpful. The sections about what judgements you can make from the book cover and how this might relate to individuals and groups was interesting. I am definitely more confident now and have begun the process of increasing my book knowledge.
