The Reader Organisation’s National Conference

In order to address the increased need for social inclusion, meaningful activity, and better health, The Reader Organisation’s pioneering shared reading project, Get Into Reading has a proven track record engaging with many of the hardest to reach individuals in society to build stronger, healthier, and more connected communities.

Our 2013 Conference, Shared Reading for Healthy Communities, offered an invaluable opportunity for commissioners, practitioners, and leaders from across public and mental health, criminal justice, social care, community and education services, and professionals from the private and third sector, to examine the impact of shared reading projects as a whole population approach in the context of national policies and strategies.

Speakers and panellists included:

• Jane Davis, founder and director of The Reader Organisation
• Andy Burnham MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health
• Professor Louis Appleby, National Clinical Director for Offender Health and Chair of the National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group, University of Manchester
• Alan Yates, Director at Unique Health Solutions Ltd, former Chief Executive of Mersey Care NHS Trust
• Stephen Dalton, Chief Executive, Mental Health Network at NHS Confederation
• Professor Philip Davis, Director, Centre for Research into Reading, Information and Linguistic Systems, at University of Liverpool
• Professor Martin Orrell, Professor of Ageing and Mental Health at University College London
• Ciara Eastell, Head of Libraries, Culture and Heritage, Devon Libraries
• Pam Usher, Libraries, Arts and Heritage Manager, London Borough of Southwark
• Dirk Terryn, Literature and Media, Canon Cultuurcel

The morning, ‘Healthy People’, focused on public health, mental health and dementia care; the afternoon, ‘Connected Communities’, focused on criminal justice, education and young people, libraries and our research.

See what happened at the 2013 Conference on our blog.

What former Conference attendees said:

 “Entertaining, informing and challenging – the best presentation by academics I have ever seen”

“Inspirational stuff”

“The day as a whole was great – an inspiring and fascinating examination of the power of reading”

“Food for the soul”

“Reaffirmation of personal and professional belief in the power of reading”

Past Conference speakers include:

• Dr Iona Heath, Former President of the Royal College of General Practitioners
  
  
• Jonathan Rose, William R Kenan Professor of History, Drew University, USA,  and author of The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
  
  
• Lemn Sissay, award-winning poet and the first to write for the Olympics 2012
  
  
• Erwin James, writer and Guardian journalist
  
  
• Nick Broughton, Medical Director, West London Mental Health NHS Trust
  
  
• Professor Phil Davis, Centre for Research into Reading, Information and Linguistic Systems, University of Liverpool
  
  
• Fiona Johnstone, Director of Public Health, NHS Wirral
  
  
• Beverley Humphrey, Chief Executive, Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Trust
  
  
• Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist for Gilead and Orange prize winner for Home, who will talk about the personal impact of reading on her life
  
  
• Professor Maryanne Wolf, internationally acclaimed author of Proust and The Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
  
  
• Professor Rick Rylance (Chair of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council) on ‘Defending the Humanities’
  
  
• Sue Charteris, Founder and Director, Shared Intelligence
  
  
• Blake Morrison, author
  
  
• Susan Blishen, Mental Health Foundation
  
  
• Dr David Fearnley Medical Director of Mersey Care NHS Trust