The Reading Agency: an overview
Problems and solutions
For a wealthy country with free education the UK has
a shocking literacy problem. We’re a divided society –
there are those who read and love it and those who
can’t and don’t.
Around one in six adults have problems with literacy.
Half the prison population has low literacy levels, as
do 70% of young people excluded from school.
Tragically, only 40% of our young people admit to
enjoying reading. If you struggle with reading you
can’t participate fully in education, employment, your
community or in cultural life. You just don’t have an equal chance in life.
Our mission
The Reading Agency is an independent charity with a
mission to give everyone an equal chance in life by
helping people become confident and enthusiastic
readers.
The charity focuses particularly on helping people
needing extra support to become readers – children in
their formative years, disadvantaged young people
and adults with poor literacy skills.
We change lives by involving 1million people each
year in practical activities like reading challenges. These make reading social and more enjoyable, and
increase people’s reading range, confidence and skills.
We are passionate about libraries’ vital role in creating equal access to reading and are the leading reading
charity working with librarians to spread reading. We have been working with SLIC (Scottish Library &
Information Council) to develop a national strategy to ‘Get Scotland Reading’ through libraries.
In our first ten years we have involved people in 7 million life changing reading opportunities. In the next
five years we want to create another 10 million opportunities. Because everything changes when we read.
What we do to get people reading
Children
Tesco Bank Summer Reading Challenge Scotland
Children's reading can 'dip' during the school summer holidays. Research shows that the annual Summer
Reading Challenge gets three-quarters of a million children aged 4 to 11 across the UK into libraries and
reading six books during the holidays which helps keep up their skills and builds their confidence.
Chatterbooks reading groups for children
Chatterbooks is our network of children’s reading groups for 4 to 12 year olds running in libraries and
schools across the UK. 10,000 children belong to the groups, which widen reading horizons and build
literacy skills by inspiring children to talk about books.
Young people
Reading Activists
Reading Activists is our national reading programme which improves
disadvantaged young people’s life chances. It builds new skills and an
enthusiasm for reading, creates community volunteering opportunities
and gives 11 to 19 year olds a real voice in shaping future library services.
Adults
Six Book Challenge
The Six Book Challenge invites less confident readers to pick six reads and record their reading in a diary in
order to receive a certificate. In 2013 it reached 35,000 young people and adults through public libraries,
colleges, workplaces and prisons. Research shows that the Challenge encourages people to develop a
reading habit whilst improving their confidence, literacy skills, employability and quality of life.
Reading Groups for Everyone
Reading Groups for Everyone is a national initiative to showcase the good things that happen when people
come together to share and talk about reading. Through the readinggroups.org website – which has 4,000
groups registered including ones for adults with low literacy and visually impaired groups – we encourage
more people to set up reading groups by offering suggested reads, events and competitions.
Reading Well
Reading Well harnesses the power of reading to promote health and wellbeing through the Books on
Prescription scheme of quality-assured self-help books and a range of lists of Mood-boosting Books.
World Book Night
World Book Night is an annual celebration of reading and books which takes place on 23 April. It sees
passionate volunteers give hundreds of thousands of books away in their communities to share their love
of reading with people who, for whatever reason, don’t read for pleasure or own books.
Help us change more lives
readingagency.org.uk
@readingagency
facebook.com/readingagency
Registered charity number 1085443