The Salford GIR project started in April 2008. The groups currently running are with elderly people in care homes, particularly those with dementia, people of all ages with mental health problems and the homeless. This target was decided after Jane Davis came to speak about the project at a ‘Young at Heart' event in Salford, back in 2007. The then Assistant Director of Salford City Council's, Community Health and Social Care directorate, thought the work of Get into Reading would be very beneficial to local residents and wanted the project to develop. One open group in a library has also been launched and more are planned.

Salford Libraries and Information Service are leading the project, in conjunction with The Reader Organisation, Salford City Council and Salford Primary Care Trust. Sarah Coyne (Reader Development Officer for Salford Libraries) and Amanda Brown (Get into Reading Project Worker) are working very hard together to set up a variety of groups in the Salford area.

One GIR group member from Ecclesholme care home, when asked what the group meant to them said:

"We are in a situation where everything is done for us. We get out of the habit of thinking. This group presents us with the opportunity to think for ourselves. Stirs up the old grey matter. It's good for us."

For more information on the Salford project please contact: Sarah Coyne (call 0161 778 0887) or Amanda Brown (call 07807 106 694).

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