Reading Hack Seminars June 2016

Claire Styles - TRA

Chris Myhill – Gateshead

Sue Ball - Staffordshire

Reading Hack is…

A programme led by young people aged 13 to 24 who do reading activities and volunteering, called hacks, to gain skills and experience.

A hack is “a clever solution to a tricky problem. To hack is to modify or change something in an extraordinary way” [Urban Dictionary, 2009].

Supports corporate objectives

• Community engagement and youth voice

• Volunteering/social action (Step Up to Serve)

• Supports health and wellbeing

• Pre-employment skills

• Supports reading enjoyment

• Increased engagement with the library

• Supports SCL Universal Offers and Library Journey

Reading Hack staff video

Reading Hack in 2015/16

Achievements in 2015/16

Across the 53 pilot authorities:

• 5,686 YP participated as Reading Hackers

• 9,619 other YP came to events

• 1,800 Reading Hack events in 621 libraries

• 26% of events in areas of social deprivation

Developing volunteering roles Roles supporting younger children: • Reading buddies (Tower Hamlets & Lancashire) • Storytime (Northumberland) • Homework clubs (Brent) • Chatterbooks (Hertfordshire) • Young Arts Award supporters esp for SRC (Dorset) • Gaming & coding - code clubs, minecraft, Wii

(Manchester) • Games – lego and board games (Birmingham) • Storytelling roles (Birmingham)

Developing volunteering roles Supporting other young people:

• Writing reviews (Birmingham)

• Festival volunteers – (Leeds, Glouc)

• Reading Hack ambassadors – in schools, for manga clubs (Staffs, Norfolk)

• Digital buddies – with 3D printers etc (Manchester)

• Stock selection – online & in stores (Staffs, Leeds)

• Website advisors

• Writing groups (Northumberland)

• Steering group/ Board roles (York)

• Mentoring and leading other volunteers (Notts)

Developing volunteering roles

Supporting older people:

• Digital buddies – e.g. help with Freedom Pass renewals (Tower Hamlets, Northumberland)

• Supporting adult events - helping technicians etc (Brent)

Developing volunteering roles

Supporting the library service:

• Shadowing library authority trust boards (York)

• Interviewing staff (Dorset)

Evaluation: Young people said:

• 76% of YP said they have gained new skills, including planning, creativity and leadership.

• 71% of YP felt that Reading Hack had a highly positive impact on their confidence.

• 65% agreed that their involvement in Reading Hack had made them want to read more.

• 84% were encouraged to continue volunteering (in libraries and local community

Libraries said that Reading Hack:

• Develops a more cohesive (branded) offer

• Helped them reach more young people

• Made their libraries more appealing and fun

• Highlighted to young people the different opportunities that libraries offer

• Normalised youth-led activity, with young people having more of a say in the programme

Challenges

• Staff restructuring and changes – capacity

• Seeing Reading Hack as integrating into existing work, rather than adding workload

• Wide age range – particularly where a coordinating role for older YP has not been established

• Balancing driving momentum of the programme with being youth-co-produced

Reading Hack in 2016/17 Delivering in 2016/17:

• Support the pilot authorities as a Learning Group

• Roll out Reading Hack across the country

• Develop with schools and colleges

Objectives:

• Work with SCL and ASCEL to integrate further into the URO and Children’s Library Journey

• Build the YP website

• Develop new partnerships

• Develop a stronger YP voice and ownership

Reading Hack and Reading Well for YP

• Reading Hack website is the YP-facing platform for Shelf Help YP mental health programme

• Elsevier-funded Lewisham pilot with YP to develop Shelf Help ‘hacks’

• YP festival of reading in October, developed with young advisors across Reading Well and Reading Hack

Content engagement

• Feature hacks

• Competitions and prizes

• Project fund and Call for Ideas

• Reading Hack artists in residence

• Young people – editors, in-residence

• Festival of reading

The Popcorn Sessions

Every month we invite reading groups to interview an author of a new YA fiction title. Our publisher friends provide the books, we provide the popcorn and your group get the chance to interview an author for the Reading Hack website.

Project fund

The Reading Hack website

-Find hack activities to do or create their own

-Set up groups and plan hacks together

-Record what they’re doing – and the skills they gain – to put on their CV

-Download a skills letter for their CV and count up their volunteering hours

-Link with activity that DofE and Arts Award have recognised

Reading Hack Does #LovetoRead

Purpose: • Celebrate YP reading and writing as part of #LovetoRead • Encourage more young people to get involved • Highlight range of YP reading offers Will include: • Flagship event on 24th October: Manchester Central Library • 8 other author roadshows • Hack challenge videos by authors and vloggers • Toolkit ideas in the main SCL #LovtoRead toolkit going out

to libraries in September.

Thank you!