A club to awaken the love of reading in Biskopsgården

Malin Carlsson has been working at Region Västra Götaland’s Cultural Affairs Administration since the autumn of 2022. As project manager of Extracurricular Reading Promotion, a methodology development project, she wants to reach children who read less.    

“They might be children whose language development has been weak, or who live in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. After trying three different methods we concluded that the “young reading ambassadors” idea was the one to continue developing.”

Much of the ground was already prepared for the Reading Club 

Young people to employ were immediately available through various municipal operations, and the will to make a difference was already there in these areas. Locals wanted to help turn around a negative trend in their area – everything from housing companies to non-profit associations, and the libraries, who know all about reading promotion, Malin notes.

“All we had to do was bring them together and let the various skills contribute towards the common goal – getting more children and young people to read. It’s also important that there’s someone who keeps things together and makes sure that everything develops in the desired direction – and also that there’s a shared vision of what to do.”

For the Reading Club, a special role has been played by the non-profit association Biblioteksvännerna i Biskopsgården, which supports libraries. The municipal job scheme Ung Extra had provided them with a number of young people they had to find extra jobs for. They got in touch with the project manager Malin, since they knew that a project involving reading ambassadors had been carried out in another part of Gothenburg the previous summer.

“Ung Extra needs recipient partners that can find meaningful working tasks for these young people. Biblioteksvännerna i Biskopsgården got in touch and wondered if we couldn’t turn some of them into young reading ambassadors. Now we have four reading ambassadors who are from the local area.”

Good to have a local connection 

The local library offered the Reading Club the use of their children’s section, and the project has also had the support of two children’s librarians. They helped plan the contents of the introduction given to the young people, and also made suggestions based on which books are popular among the area’s children.

In addition to four reading ambassadors of upper secondary school age, two supervisors are also involved with the Reading Club – both have library experience and are familiar with the local area. Malin finds it a big plus that the people working with the Reading Club have a connection with the local area.

“For one thing, it adds credibility when the activity is carried out by people who know their local area. The children can see themselves in these young people – maybe they attend the same school and know each other’s older siblings. And the other thing is that the knowledge stays in the area, which is a huge benefit,” she says.

To improve the status of reading  

The Reading Club began meeting at the beginning of February. Every Friday afternoon they get together for two hours – between 10 and 15 children aged 8 to 11 typically take part. They usually begin with reading aloud and then move on to some activity connected with reading, language or books.

“Books always have to be the focus. We try to pick up on what the children want, but it has to be about reading,” Malin says.

Biskopsgården’s Reading Club will only continue through the spring, ending at the end of May. This summer a local summer activity will be arranged instead. Fourteen young people and three supervisors will be doing reading promotion mixed with movement, sports and creative activities over six summer weeks.   

 “With this project we want to highlight reading as a social activity and a leisure activity. We also want to improve the status of reading, so that children will be happy to say ‘I’m not on the football team, but I am in the Reading Club’,” says Malin.

Text by: Annsofie Andersson 

Read more about the projekt in the article Shana, a reading ambassador that inspires children to read

Originally published on The Cultural Affairs Administration of Västra Götaland’s website.