Internships at The Reader Organisation cover a wide-range of engaging and exciting activities, all of which will play a significant role in helping us to grow in the coming months. Our latest round of internships are open for application now, and we’re on the look-out for five keen, energetic graduate-level individuals to join us at our Head Office in Liverpool for a four-month internship.

These internships will last for sixteen weeks, for a total of 21/25 hours per week (unpaid, but with travel expenses paid). Current roles are:

• Communications: Events and Publications Internship (download Job Description)
• Communications: PR and Publicity Internship (download Job Description)
• Arts Adminstration Internship (download Job Description)
• Business Support Internship (download Job Description)
• Organisational Development Internship (download Job Description)

Previous interns at The Reader Organisation have gone on to take up posts such as Editor at Vintage Books, Marketing Manager at Princes Ltd, Digital Executive at a design company, Marketing Assistant at an architect’s firm, Accountant Graduate Scheme at KPMG, and a variety of positions within The Reader Organisation, including our current Communications Assistant, Research Administration Assistant and Development Manager.

How to apply

Please complete the required application form and return by email to jobs@thereader.org.uk or in post to The Reader Organisation, The Friary Centre, Bute Street, Liverpool L5 3LA.

Deadline for all applications is Friday 1st June at midday. You will be notified if you are to be called for interview by the end of the day on Wednesday 6th June. If you have not heard from us by then, you have been unsuccessful. Volume of applications may make replies to everyone impossible.

Interviews will be held at The Reader Organisation Head Office at The Friary Centre, Bute Street, Liverpool on Thursday 7th June 2012.

If you have any queries, please call The Reader Organisation on 0151 207 7207.

Written by award-winning playwright Caryl Churchill in 1976, the play is being revived by Liverpool Network Theatre after being approached by Frank Kennedy, organiser of the ‘Digging Up Our History’ course in Everton last year, who explains the play’s significance to the area: 

Although the play isn’t set in Liverpool, and does not directly depict the great battles of the Civil War, it shows how, during Cromwell’s uprising against King Charles I, the hopes of poor people were raised – and then dashed. WECC is just down the road from the hilltop campsite of Prince Rupert, who in 1644 captured the small port of Liverpool for the King, before the Parliamentarians won it back.

The Everton performance is part of the 2012 Out of the Blue Festival, a four month long programme of music performances, plays, exhibitions and sporting activities in and around Everton Park. Festival co-ordinator and local resident Adam Byrne will be starring in the play alongside Frank.

The play will then move to venues in the city centre over the weekend, with performances in The Casa on Friday 11th May and Next To Nowhere (beneath News From Nowhere) on Saturday 12th May (both performances at 8pm).

Tickets cost £6/£3 concessions and can be bought on the door of the venue or in advance from News From Nowhere on 0151 708 7270.

Before I came to the groups I was housebound. I had no motivation, never spoke to no one, had no confidence; unhappy, basically. I was nervous when I first come [to the group] and didn’t know what to expect – I just thought, ‘what am I doing?!’ But when I went in, everyone greeted me and straight away I knew it was a friendly place so I relaxed a bit. When I first heard what we’d be doing [in the group] – reading – I thought, ‘is this for me?!’ then, once [the facilitator] began I started getting dead into it. The atmosphere and communicating with people – even the layout with the biscuits on the table and getting a drink – is good. It’s like being at home.

I was dreading reading, thought I’d run away, but [the facilitator] said that there was no pressure to read if you didn’t want to and then I felt ok. I never read, not once, when I first came, but then I did the training. I used to stutter my words – was dead edgy talking to people – but even my communication has improved. The other volunteers are lovely – lots of friendly faces when we meet up. To know them is, well, really nice. It’s an opportunity to make friends. The support [from Reader staff] has been great, too.

It’s given me the motivation to get out the house and do more stuff. It’s turned my life around. I’m a completely different person – sometimes I don’t recognise myself, I think, ‘Is this me?!’. It’s made me want to get out and get a life. It’s given me opportunities I’ve never had before. It’s given me the opportunity to do more with my life – I’ve had anxiety and depression and it’s helped me come out of that. You can express how you feel.  I’ve achieved something.  I used to feel like a nobody and now I feel like a somebody.  I’ve never been proud of myself before. I am now. I like feeling helpful.  It’s nice to be wanted – I’ve never had that before, I’ve never really been praised. I never used to take compliments; even if someone praised me I couldn’t take it, but now I’m learning to not take the negatives, not to worry what other people think, but just – y’know – see the positives. I used to not the like the world, not like people, but I do now.

I never liked poetry before and now I love it! It’s something I actually enjoy, I like reading something I can relate to. That one the other day (The More Loving One by WH Auden), that was just brilliant! When you leave [a group] it gives you a light, it lights up the rest of your day. I’d suggest this to every single person in the world – it’s fantastic! It changes your aspect – it’s amazing.

When asked whether there was anything more she would like to add, E said, ‘People should know just how friendly it is, it’s really important. Everyone is so welcoming.’

E has gone from strength to strength in her role; having recently been asked to share her experience of how GIR has changed her attitude to reading with a local MP, as well as expanding her current voluntary work with TRO. E has expressed a wish to go to college and one day work for TRO in a paid capacity, saying, ‘I’ve never known what I wanted to do before, but this is it.’

We couldn’t be more pleased to have her with us.

Here at TRO, we’re passionate about helping people like E overcome some of the challenges they face and transform their lives. That’s why our major fundraising campaign for 2012 is The Reader Apprenticeship Programme: Building Opportunities for Life. We’re aiming to raise £14,000 to employ a young care-leaver to work with us in Liverpool and take their first steps towards independence.

To find out how you can support this vital cause, please visit our website.

News From Nowhere are holding a special evening event on World Book Night – Monday 23rd April from 6pm-9pm – to allow literature lovers to celebrate the momentous occasion surrounded by tons of books. They’ll have 25 free copies of one of the World Book Night books, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, to give away on the night, as well as a communal book display for readers to show off the books they love, a range of one-minute readings from favourite books, consolation prizes for those who don’t manage to snap up one of the 25 free copies of Good Omens and refreshments for all.

Whether you’re a seasoned booklover or you’ve never been in a bookshop before, this night is for you – you can browse, buy or just soak up the bookish atmosphere. It’s also Shakespeare’s birthday, and we’re sure he could think of no better birthday party than sharing in the joys of books.

World Book Night at News From Nowhere
Monday 23rd April, 6pm-9pm
News from Nowhere Radical & Community Bookshop, 96 Bold St, Liverpool, L1 4HY 0151 708 7270

And make sure you join us right here on the blog on Monday for our own Shakespeare inspired World Book Night celebrations…

On Friday 20th April, the Little Girl Giant will be arriving in Everton Park as part of her journey. To welcome her to the community, and to officially launch the Out of the Blue Festival 2012 programme, West Everton Community Council and Friends of Everton Park will be holding a ‘Picnic in the Park’ at the top of Everton Park. Members of the community and other visitors are invited to sing songs, share stories and have some lunch as the Little Girl has her siesta between 12.30-4pm.

The event will also be the culmination of Get Into Reading’s Titanic memorial celebrations – for the past few weeks, Get Into Reading groups across Liverpool and Wirral have been reading and discussing poems and other pieces inspired by the sinking of the Titanic, sharing memories of the world’s most famous ship. As part of the Sea Odyssey event and Out of the Blue launch, Get Into Reading Liverpool Project Manager Eleanor Stanton will be reading Thomas Hardy’s The Convergence of the Twain at the Park on Friday so to share in the reading, come along for what promises to be a great celebration – and if you can, please wear something blue.

The Lauries Centre, Birkenhead, Merseyside.

Six weeks of stories by great tellers of tales about different kinds of help, Sarah Jewett, Kipling, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, William Trevor and Graham Swift. The dilemma of caring is that it’s often the helper that becomes dependent. Come and read some stories together, no work needed in advance and copies will be provided.

The six week course starts on Monday 14th May at 10 30am in The Lauries Community Centre in Birkenhead. All funds go to The Reader Organisation, so you’ll also be supporting the organisation - giving help and caring in fact!

The cost of the course starts at £40[full price] and £30 for pensioners or students. Get into Reading members will get a reduced rate of £25, and those on income support £15.

 To book your place, email rachelsalmon@thereader.org.uk or call 0151 650 5466 or 07807 106859.

There are still a few spaces available on our upcoming masterclass ‘Putting The Reader to Work’, scheduled to run on: Tuesday 24th April, 1pm – 5pm at The Lauries Comunity Centre, Birkenhead.

You’ll all be familiar with The Reader magazine. You’ll be a subscriber since you trained. You may even know that this quarterly publication was the starting point of The Reader Organisation’s outreach work, precursor of Get Into Reading project and the shared reading model. What you may not be doing is putting The Reader to work, really using the magazine as a personal resource that will make you a better reader, and a better facilitator as a result.

Join Jane Davis, Director of TRO and founding editor of the magazine, to explore this wonderful resource together. Email jessicareeves@thereader.org.uk to secure your place, or call 0151 207 7207.

Over the past century life expectancy has dramatically increased, leading to a growing ageing population worldwide who face a number of distinct health challenges. The main issues for affecting older people’s health in all income groups over the world are noncommunicable diseases, which include heart disease, stroke and dementia – in 2010, there were 35.6 million people living with dementia globally and numbers are expected to double over the space of the next 20 years. Longer life expectancy also affects social structures and relationships and the need to increase participation in ‘age-friendly’ social environments has been identified by WHO as key for fostering good mental health and wellbeing amongst older people.

The Reader Organisation recognises the specific issues that affect the health of older people, and our important ongoing work with older people is helping to ensure that their levels of health, wellbeing and social participation are significantly improved as a result of regular shared reading. Our recent evaluation results for our Bupa Reader-in-Residence Pilot Project speak for themselves, but speaking volumes are the stories that come straight from the older people we work with.

TRO’s work with older people has also recently been highlighted by Living With Dementia, the monthly members magazine of the Alzheimer’s Society. Their March issue featured an article entitled ‘Reading for Pleasure’,  detailing the benefits of Get Into Reading in care home settings.

We’re spreading the benefits of shared reading even further amongst older people with the launch of our Merseyside Volunteer Reader Scheme, funded by the Big Lottery. Volunteers taking part in the project will be trained to take Get Into Reading to older people in care homes across Merseyside. We’re currently looking for volunteers in Wirral who may be experiencing mental ill health or unemployment to take part in the scheme as well as care homes in Wirral who want to run a volunteer-led reading group. For more information please visit our website or e-mail christinejohnson@thereader.org.uk

And because not only is today World Health Day, but also William Wordsworth’s 242nd birthday, what better way to celebrate than with a rather appropriate poem from the man himself…

Such Age, How Beautiful!

Such age, how beautiful! O Lady bright,
Whose mortal lineaments seem all refined
By favouring Nature and a saintly Mind
To something purer and more exquisite
Than flesh and blood; whene’er thou meet’est my sight,
When I behold thy blanched unwithered cheek,
Thy temples fringed with locks of gleaming white,
And head that droops because the soul is meek,
Thee with the welcome Snowdrop I compare;
That child of winter, prompting thoughts that climb
From desolation toward the genial prime;
Or with the Moon conquering earth’s misty air,
And filling more and more with crystal light
As pensive Evening deepens into night.

The Reader Organisation, in partnership with Wirral Libraries, present an evening dedicated to celebrating  the power of Dickens’ writing in the company of dynamic readers Jane Davis, Kate McDonnell, Brian Nellist and Phil Davis.

Selected readings from David Copperfield, Great Expectations and others will show the emotional range of Dickens’ work and highlight why it still means so much today to modern readers.  If you want an opportunity to join in Dickens’ bicentenary celebrations, read some of his most moving passages and get an insight into the enduring power of his books, then this is the evening for you.

Tickets cost £3 (including glass of wine/juice) and are available now.

To book, please contact Bebington Library on 0151 643 7219 or email bebington@wirral-libraries.net .

Wirral Get Into Reading members will also be able to buy tickets directly through their group faciliator.

Lemistry celebrates the work of Polish author Stanislaw Lem, internationally renowned for his science fiction writing – including the novel Solaris, which has been adapted for film twice. Previous Lemistry events held across the UK have proved incredibly successful but the event, which will take place at Toxteth Library, will be the first time the series has come to Liverpool.

The event is dedicated to the recently published book of the same name, a celebration of the great Polish writer’s legacy featuring previously untranslated work, and a host of stories and essays responding to and influenced by his visions. Both guest stars have collaborated on Lemistry and will be reading, as well as discussing Lem’s work. There will also be an exclusive screening of the Quay Brothers’ film The Mask, a short animation based on one of Lem’s stories, as well as the chance to buy some of Lem’s books in English translation for a real bargain!

Merseyside Polonia is a Liverpool based organisation that is creating links between Polish and British culture, and present Lemistry in conjunction with Comma Press and The Polish Cultural Institute.

Lemistry
Thursday 1st March 2012, 6.30-8.30pm
Toxteth Library, Windsor Street, Liverpool, L8 1XF

The event is free and there will be tea and biscuits on arrival!

For more information, please contact Merseyside Polonia:  literature@merseysidepolonia.com