
Showcase Film: Five Years of Reading Hack
19 June 2018 • Showcase
Young people from Croydon, Gateshead, Lancashire, Sutton and Staffordshire share how Reading Hack has made a difference to them.
Read moreHere are the pages tagged with "volunteering"
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19 June 2018 • Showcase
Young people from Croydon, Gateshead, Lancashire, Sutton and Staffordshire share how Reading Hack has made a difference to them.
Read more19 June 2018 • News
After five years of generous funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, we have some important news about the future of our young people's programme
Read more17 April 2018 • News
We're excited to announce the winners of our Call for Ideas 2018! Six exciting and creative ideas from young people who want to share reading with their communities.
Read more09 March 2018 • News
Discover the books that Reading Hackers will be recommending to their fellow volunteers this summer.
Read more22 February 2017 • News
We're excited to announce the Reading Hack Top Ten Volunteer Reads 2017 These are the books we'll be recommending to the young volunteers supporting the Summer Reading Challenge this year.
Read more04 October 2016 • Showcase • Case studies
St Helens Libraries use Arts Award to enhance their Reading Hack offer. Here's how it works...
Read more08 October 2014 • Showcase
Six volunteers worked in Hereford library this summer. They each contributed, in their own way, to the success of the Summer Reading Challenge. The volunteer who made the most impact, both on children and on library staff, was 14 year-old Gareth. Coincidentally, he was also the youngest.
Read more30 July 2014 • Showcase
Hampshire County Council decided to involve more young people in this year's Summer Reading Challenge than ever before. Romsey School pupils even put on a play to encourage local children to sign up.
Read more28 April 2015 • Resources for librarians • Reading Activists Groups • Practitioners Guides • Skills and training
Are you a young person volunteering for The Summer Reading Challenge this summer? Check out our volunteering website for young volunteers
Read more19 June 2014 • Skills and training
The Summer Reading Challenge is fast approaching and soon hundreds of volunteers will be on the lookout for fun activities to do in the library. Share your Mythical Maze activity with us and be in with the chance to win a prize.
Read more09 June 2014 • Skills and training
Volunteering for the Summer Reading Challenge is a great way to give something back to your community. You get to work with kids, encouraging them to enjoy reading and you'll pick up some great skills and experience for your personal statement or CV along the way. Signed up and ready to go? Here are five things to prepare you before you start.
Read more12 May 2014 • Showcase
We've been on a mission to create some short films about volunteering and the skills you can gain from doing so. We teamed up with Verdant Films, comedian and comedy writer Holly Walsh and a host of young volunteers to shoot the films on location, at the Ideas Store, Whitechapel.
Read more30 April 2014 • Showcase
Seventeen year old Saagar's volunteering journey began when he needed some volunteering experience to complete his Duke of Edinburgh Award. He has been a library user all his life and had seen and participated in activities that the library offered. He therefore viewed the library as a place that could offer him exactly the volunteering experience he was looking for.
Read more26 March 2014 • Showcase
Seventeen year old Katy started coming to the library with her mother from a very young age. Her mother became a volunteer at the library, and Katy accompanied her, helping out too. She enjoyed it so much that as soon as she was old enough, she became an official volunteer for a library in Wiltshire.
Read more12 March 2014 • Showcase
Sixteen year old Mahnoor gained valuable skills as a Summer Reading Challenge volunteer which have set her on the path of her chosen career.
Read more05 March 2014 • News
This year as part of the Mythical Maze Summer Reading Challenge 2014 we've decided to provide a list of top reads for the young people who spend their summer holidays as Summer Reading Challenge volunteers.
Read more06 March 2014 • Resources for librarians
It's clear that taking on volunteers during the Summer Reading Challenge helps support libraries at a very busy time of year. But how can libraries ensure that young volunteers have the best possible experience. We talked to libraries that have worked with Summer Reading Challenge volunteers a number of years to find out.
Read more21 February 2015 • Resources for librarians
If you're working with volunteers this summer, check out our online resources to help you get young people involved.
Read more06 March 2014 • Resources for librarians
Libraries in North Yorkshire have been successfully working with Summer Reading Challenge volunteers since 2010. Numbers of volunteers have been growing steadily since they started and in 2013 they worked with approximately ninety volunteers. We spoke to Hazel Smith, Team Leader - Service Development, about her experiences.
Read more06 February 2014 • Resources for librarians
Tracy Hager, Children & Young People's Librarian in Wiltshire, is responsible for recruiting and working with Summer Reading Challenge volunteers in Trowbridge and Chippenham libraries. She talks to us about the rewards and challenges of working with volunteers.
Read more06 February 2014 • Resources for librarians
The number of children who completed the Summer Reading Challenge in Redbridge rose by 13% in 2013 and the extra support provided by volunteers was integral to this rise. By giving children that valuable one to one attention, volunteers improve the children's experience of the challenge and of reading.
Read more07 February 2014 • Resources for librarians
Cornwall Council and Surrey County Council have been working with Summer Reading Challenge volunteers successfully for years. Numbers of volunteers in both councils are growing but it hasn't always been straightforward. Jaime Dowling, Young People's Services Project Officer in Cornwall and Carol Hales, Senior Team Officer - Children and Young People in Surrey, have both reported that in the beginning, they came up against some resistance from library staff.
Read more06 December 2013 • Showcase
The anniversary may have been and gone, but for real Dr Who fans that's no reason not to keep the fun happening. One of Warrington's Reading Activists, Will, devised this Dr Who library hunt for other young people in Warrington's libraries. Find out how to run the hunt in your library, and download the resources.
Read more01 May 2015 • Resources for librarians
Hopefully your volunteers will gain many benefits from being part of your volunteering scheme: new skills, new friends and work experience being just a few. Find out more tips for recognising volunteers' work and links to accreditation schemes
Read more07 February 2014 • Resources for librarians
Have you started recruiting volunteers for the Summer Reading Challenge? Check out some tips here. Recruiting young volunteers is part of marketing your library service. Volunteering roles need to be understandable, and designed to be attractive and fun for young people
Read more09 February 2014 • Resources for librarians
For over a decade, the Summer Reading Challenge has been helping children to sustain and develop their reading over the long school holidays. The Challenge has grown year on year and now supports 750,000 children in the UK. The Summer Reading Challenge is so popular that it can be a struggle to staff the various activities required to make it a success.
Read more03 June 2014 • Resources for librarians • Practitioners Guides • Get involved • Summer Reading Challenge volunteering
Find out about the benefits to libraries and young people from taking part in Summer Reading Challenge volunteering.
Read more06 November 2012 • Showcase • Reviews • Kent
James, a library volunteer from Kent, wrote this review of James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts' 'Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life'.
Read more22 October 2012 • Showcase
Earlier this year library volunteers in Croydon hosted a double whammy of fantastic events at Ashburton Library.
Read more16 October 2012 • Get involved
We're looking for young people to carry on the work started by Charles Dickens by becoming a Dickens Social Reporter.
Read more10 October 2012 • Showcase • Social reporters
We asked our amazing volunteers to act as StoryLab Reporters and write about their experiences of the project, sharing their stories, book reviews and top tips for running library events. Here are some of our favorite responses from our StoryLab Reporters...
Read more22 October 2012 • Showcase • Social reporters
Ladies and Gentleman, here's part two of Descendant, a new novel by Sîan, one of the young volunteers at Portsmouth Library!
Read more17 October 2012 • Showcase • Social reporters
Sîan, a member of the ever talented group of young volunteers at Portsmouth Library, has started writing her very own literary masterpiece - 'Descendant'. Here's the first chapter.
Read more02 October 2012 • Showcase
Since summer 2010 Samuel has been a Summer Reading Challenge volunteer at Horsham Library in West Sussex. Here he tells us about his experiences as a volunteer, and explains how the project has helped him improve his CV and boost his confidence.
Read more24 September 2012 • Showcase
Jodie was a second year student at the University of Birmingham when she applied to be a Summer Reading Challenge volunteer at Dudley Libraries. Little did she know that her volunteering would help her secure a paid job.
Read more20 September 2012 • Showcase
We would like to give an enormous thank you and a virtual high-five to James, one of the volunteers at Padgate Library in Warrington. Over the course of the summer James clocked up an amazing 125 hours of good deeds in his local library!
Read more17 September 2012 • News
On Monday 10 September four young Summer Reading Challenge volunteers met with Nick Hurd MP, Minister for Civil Society at Canada Water Library in Southwark.
Read more04 September 2012 • Resources for librarians
These resources can be used by librarians running Reading Hack but also by other professionals running creative and social media projects with young people.
Read more03 September 2012 • News
Every year thousands of young people across the UK help their local communities by doing amazing voluntary work. However, this truth is often forgotten and these same generous and inspiring young people are often portrayed extremely negatively in the media.
Read more30 August 2012 • Social reporters
Aparajita, a Summer Reading Challenge StoryLab volunteer, says participating in events like these helps children gain confidence to express their views about the books that they have read.
Read more30 August 2012 • Social reporters
Autumn, a StoryLab volunteer, says forget London 2012, the real sporting event of the summer was the Story Lab Summer Reading Challenge sports day!
Read more30 August 2012 • Skills and training • Knowledge
This summer young people all around the UK have been helping with StoryLab activities in their local public libraries as part of the Summer Reading Challenge. Katie from Redhill has sent us some great new tips for StoryLab volunteers about different ways to get the most out of volunteering!
Read more30 August 2012 • Showcase
Katie, a StoryLab Reporter who has been volunteering in Redhill Library, tells us about her summer.
Read more23 April 2014 • News
Another fantastic World Book Night took place on 23 April 2014. Givers, receivers, libraries, book shops and arts centres have been sharing their World Book Night stories.
Read more16 January 2013 • Media releases
The number of young people aged 11 to 24 volunteering in their local library as part of the Summer Reading Challenge has risen by almost half.
Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd joined inspirational young volunteers at a reception at No. 11 Downing Street on 15 January, to celebrate this achievement and to encourage even more young people to share in the benefits of volunteering.
Read more24 September 2012 • Our blog
The Reading Agency's Director, Miranda McKearney, tells us why nothing makes her crosser than hearing people talk disparagingly about teenagers and highlights some examples of young volunteers doing amazing things in their communities.
Read more10 September 2012 • Media releases
The Reading Agency has today announced that it is working with local authority library services across the UK to create a "Youth Innovation Network" of librarians who together will generate thousands of new volunteering opportunities in public libraries for young people aged 11-25 years.
Read more13 August 2012
We support and encourage volunteering by young people and adults in their local communities.
Read moreSearch for reading groups in your area with this brilliant Reading Groups for Everyone tool, then join one!
Our Reading Ahead Find a Read tool is designed for you to filter the type of book you want, at the reading level you are comfortable with.
Use our Summer Reading Challenge Book Sorter to find brilliant books recommended by other children.