City Reads’ Spreading the Word scheme has helped make a real difference to people’s lives through reading and sharing books.

This innovative scheme saw City Reads recruit a team of volunteer Reading Champions to help run five community reading groups across the city. Over the last few months those Reading Champions have successfully delivered the project to a range of people throughout Brighton & Hove, many with literacy issues and/or poor access to books and learning support…

‘Really great and really brilliant. Really enjoyed it. They were really good to us. I shall miss the Book Club.’ Care Co-ops attendee

THE VOLUNTEERS:

City Reads received an overwhelming number of requests from Brighton residents to become Reading Champions.

After a thorough selection process, the twelve chosen volunteers were CRB checked and given specialist training (in conjunction with Brighton’s Creative Future) to cover all aspects of working in the community sector.

“I was scared and nervous at first but got more confident and relaxed as time went on. I’d do it again. I gained confidence working with people and facilitating groups and it raised my awareness of mental health issues”

THE GROUPS:

The next stage was to recruit the community groups across the city who would take part in the scheme. The Spreading the Word 2010 groups were:

• Care Co-ops – those with mental health and learning difficulties
• Sussex Partnership Trust Community Mental Health Day Centre – those with mental health problems
• Women’s centre – marginalised women
• Patching Lodge – elderly people
• Adult Learners – adults with literacy issues recruited in conjunction with Brighton & Hove Library Services

“The group was excellent and our clients really enjoyed it – we want them to come back next year.”    Debbie Seacombe, Care Co-ops

THE DELIVERY:

City Reads set up reading groups within each of these community settings, providing free books and readers guides for each session. The Reading Champions (working in pairs) then met with the individual groups each week to read, share and discuss the books…

“The group brought the book alive.” GM

“A+++ experience. The group helped my reading, the volunteers were great and it’s improved my confidence to read some more.” NA

“The workshop really helped increase my concentration”JGS

The project has been a huge success, and a big thank you goes out to all who took part – from volunteers and trainers to clients and groups!

World Book Day saw the launch of City Reads. Here are some fabulous shots of the Press Launch, taken by the intrepid and hugely talented JJ Waller.

City Reads Press Launch 2010

Photographs by JJ waller

Max and Dona at Book and Rose

City Reads at Brighton & Hove’s Book and Rose event in April, an open air event outside Jubilee Library based on the Spanish model whereby the woman traditionally buys a rose for the man and the man buys a book for the woman. Not sure what Bond or Fleming would have made of that! It’s hard to imagine Bond in a florist…  Thanks, Peter, for the photo…

ON BOND

‘I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find … exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure – an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department.’ Ian Fleming

When British Naval Commander James Bond, CMG, RNVR, first stepped out from the pages of Ian Fleming’s debut novel Casino Royale in 1953, a modern icon was born. The stories were short, sharp and explosive. The hero – smart, detached and cruel. They were fast-plotted and popular, but also drew the attention of literary heavyweights from Kingsley Amis to John Betjeman.

Over the next 10 years Fleming penned another 13 Bond titles and saw the birth of the most lucrative and enduring film franchise in movie history. Since then Bond has become a global phenomenon and international industry. Twenty-two official films; a host of spin-offs and small screen imitations; numerous parodies; literary inheritors; comic strips; graphic novels; computer games; and every shape and size of merchandise imaginable…

In short: Bond became brand! And perhaps, somewhere along the way, Fleming’s original vision – colder, darker, more complex than what followed – was lost amid the glitz and gadgetry…

This morning City Reads moved up a gear as Brighton & Hove buses rechristened the popular No. 7 bus (from Portslade to Brighton Marina) the ‘007′. Multiple copies of From Russia with Love were handed over to Roger French and his team to be placed on all the ‘007s’ from early next week. Thanks to our intrepid City Reads crew, Roger French, and JJ Waller for his fabulous photos!

Thursday 4 March (Free)
Jubilee Library  (11.00am – 7.30pm)

Click here for directions

What is it?
Members of the public can either listen to ‘the best bits’ of books being read out loud all day or book themselves a slot and read their favourite bit out loud. There will be copies of this year’s City Reads book to read from…

How does it work?
If you want to take part – just go into Jubilee Library on Thursday 4 March and book a 15 minute slot . Alternatively – just turn up and listen….

Do I have to take my own book to read from?
If you know which bit you’d like to read – that’s probably best, but there will be a selection of the nation’s favourite books on offer from you to look through.

Tuesday 16 February
5.30pm – 6.45pm
Jubilee Library, Brighton – Learning Centre

Are you passionate about books and reading?

Would you like to get more involved in the City Reads project?

If so, why not join organisers Max and Sarah for this informal volunteer meeting.
 

If you plan on joining us, please RSVP to:

Email cityreadsbrighton@googlemail.com or phone Sarah on 07985 159618

Come along and hear which book has been chosen and how you can get involved.

We will be looking for:

Bookcrossers
Would you like to leave a copy of this year’s book somewhere in the city for someone to find?

 Event helpers
Would you like to help at one of the many events we’ve got lined up during the reading period?

Readers
Do you enjoy reading aloud? If so, we have one or two events for which we need confident readers.

Manning City Reads’ stalls  
Would you be prepared to enthuse readers about the project? This could be for you.

Reading Champions
We have now selected our volunteer Reading Champions are now busy helping to help run 6 community reading groups across the city. They are working with people from marginalized groups who may have problems with literacy or poor access to books and are being supported in their role by trained specialists.

The winning book group, who will be meeting Markus Zusak for afternoon tea are Better Read than Dead. Congratulations to them for this economical yet inspired entry.

๗ THIS BOOK IS ABOUT๘

A powerful new take on an old story

†

The colours of death and survival

†

Love that doesn’t exchange kisses

†

The power of words for good and evil

†

The human spirit expressed in tiny gestures

†

Seeing the sky through a gap in the curtain

†

A father’s love for a child that is not his own

†

The theft of childhood

†

The benevolent personality of death

†

Risking your life for a debt to a stranger

-

Inspired by The Book Thief

Community Groups in Brighton

In addition to all the events and activities City Reads hosts during its 3 month reading period, the organisation also runs specially commissioned community workshops, targeted at marginalised or harder to reach members of the community. This year, these special workshops were delivered by Dominique De-Light of Creative Futures. The list below shows which groups across the city took part in 2009:

Care Co-ops – those with mental health and learning difficulties
Whitehawk Library – long term unemployed & retirees
Creative Future’s mentees – substance misuse & homelessness
Women’s centre – marginalised women
Lifeskills course – homelessness & substance misuse

Below are a few extracts from these workshops:

An Act of Kindness by Sam Jones

A while ago I was homeless and living on the streets. It was very frightening (even though I’m as hard as rock). I spent the day getting money any way I could and at night I did some begging down Jimmy Street. I met a lot of people whilst I sat at the cash machine and people always (most of the time) gave me change or a cigarette or even some chips. They were all nice people and I even got to know a few of them over the months. One evening I even got given a twenty pound note by someone I had never met before. So to me that was a selfless act, as well as all the others that had thrown me some change. I’d like to thank them all.

It’s not easy to beg for money but I had to get through the days and nights. Heroin had bought me lower than I ever thought I could get.

An Individual act of kindness By Ossie Omorogbe

The exceptional generosity shown towards me was embodied in a refined gentleman known to all as Malcolm. This guiding hand touched me on my shoulder and lifted me out of my darkest place at a time when I needed it the most. I regard him as an exception to the general rule because he encapsulated a father figure image in my life rendering insight through his experiences of life. These were littered with memories of friendships of his of all shapes and sizes, tinges and tones which logically rectified faults I had found with my general outward make up improving for the foreseeable future my colourful outlook on life that beckoned upon his calling.

Our paths crossed through familiar circles of social welfare which drew me into a spiralling whirlwind tour of a world to which I was ignorant of at the time but would soon re-acquaint myself with. I met him at a day care centre due to my mental health problems and in his capacity as my linkworker epitomising my counsellor I found in him a most steady rock of transition as I had been stranded festooned on a rock amidst other rocks in deep water far out to sea hopping along them from an island of isolation as my stepping stone onto the safety of dry land.

In his most individual of fashions he moulded my thoughts by being the added touch that broke the mould and that was to handcraft me into a seperate version of the troubled yet ever improving individual one of a kind by lending me a helping hand along the way of accepting my features and traits as the uniqueness that they would prove to become.

He was a fountain of knowledge on a parched landscape of broken dreams that would spill over with a reverberating ripple effect which would seem to be bursting at the seams of endless enthusiasm in times to come. He always hit the nail on the head in his quest to categorize me whilst taking the conscious effort not to label me and drew me up and out of the chasm that had previously engulfed my life and with a welcoming altogether reassuring pat on the back made me feel rather unlike an oddball of strangeness.

Individual Acts of Kindness – Ziggy by Geoff Lewis

‘Have you seen Ziggy?’ asked a girl of about ten who knocked on our door one summer afternoon.

‘Who’s Ziggy?’ responded Barbara.

‘The lady next door’s dog.’

Ah, Joan of course. She likes dogs. Barbara said to herself.

Joan was an elderly widow the survivor of The Rhymer Sisters High Wire act of the 1930’s frequently took our dog out when Barbara was working. Joan on her ‘perambulations’ would call in at the local butchers and collect bones for distribution to the various dogs on her route. For Suki however she took a supply of marrowbone jelly biscuits, which ensured her affections.

A visit to Joan’s extracted the information that Ziggy was a Yorkshire terrier who she had adopted that morning and who had gone missing when first put out in the garden.
Ziggy was a born escape artist who my family often hunted for on the nearby racecourse. When Joan became terminally ill she asked us to adopt Ziggy. We did and this cheerful Yorkie became a part of our lives for some years. She is buried under the thick privet hedge at the bottom of our garden, a favourite hiding place.

An Act of Kindness by Steven Switzer

My friend at the hostel often cooks me food when I am hungry. He is from Bangladesh so he knows how to make really good curries. He’s a really good cook. If I have no money he always give me some to buy something from the shop – as long as I get something for him too. He’s a really good friend. He’s always helping people, not just me. When my girlfriend was drunk and fell asleep outside my door, he helped her back to her room. I said thank you.

No trip is complete without a good read…so as part of the Brighton City Reads project VisitBrighton is offering an exclusive book for a booking offer.

Grab your copy of The Book Thief!
The first 500 people who confirm an accommodation booking through VisitBrighton either by telephone or online, for dates between 13th March and 23rd May, can collect a free copy of this year’s City Reads novel, The Book Thief, from the Brighton Visitor Information Centre*.

Described by The New York Times as ‘a novel of breathtaking scope, masterfully told.’ The Book Thief is an international bestseller and must read.
So what are you waiting for?

Get booking, claim your free book and join in Brighton City Reads…
* Each accommodation booking confirmation will contain a voucher to enable redemption at the Brighton Visitor Information Centre. Books will be provided from the Brighton VIC on a first come first served basis, whilst stocks last. Only one book per booking.

Click here for more info.

http://www.visitbrighton.com/site/your-brighton/literary