Volunteer Care Home Readers in Barnet

The Reading Revolution could not grow as fast as it has without the support of our wonderful volunteers, whose number continues to expand with our projects including the Merseyside Volunteer Reader Scheme, funded by the Big Lottery, as well as our Barnet Volunteering Project - the first volunteer-led Reader project in community settings, which has so far recruited, trained and supported twelve volunteers to work in pairs to run several shared reading groups across the borough. The programme has run in partnership with Barnet Libraries, engaging organisations including Barnet Multi-lingual Well-being Service, Barnet Homes and The Hyde Children’s Centre and has proved very successful.

Following on from the success of the volunteer-led project, we are now offering further volunteering opportunities in Barnet. In partnership with Jewish Care, we are looking for volunteers to facilitate Shared Reading groups for residents of Rubens House Care Home in Barnet. The volunteers will be working in pairs to run weekly shared read-aloud reading groups for residents with dementia.

This opportunity is open to anyone who:

• Has a genuine interest in reading and a willingness and motivation to expand this interest
• Good basic literacy and comprehension, with the ability to read aloud or learn to
• An enquiring spirit and ability to facilitate conversation that is related to the text with people
• An openness and desire to be with people in a human way, putting the needs of the group and the story ahead of their own interests
• Will be committed to running the group

Volunteers will receive training in shared reading and ongoing support from The Reader Organisation and will benefit from making a long-term commitment and significant impact to The Reader Organisation and Jewish Care.

If you are interested in finding out more about this opportunity, please contact Paul Higgins, Get Into Reading London Project Worker on paulhiggins@thereader.org.uk