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Interview with Tim, leader of the Reading Group at Our Celebration

As part of new series of volunteer profiles, Helen Stevenson met Tim Lawrence. Tim has been with Our Celebration for over a year, running the centre's popular reading group.

Before coming to York, Tim had been involved with a similar scheme in his native Merseyside, which promoted literacy and reading skills for people with serious mental health issues. When he moved to this city, he contacted Our Celebration hoping to start a reading group to run alongside the other activities already on offer. He received an enthusiastic response from David Smith, General Manager at Our Celebration, who saw an opening for a new activity at the centre.

Shared experience

Reading group is held every Wednesday and has about seven to eight registered attendees. Tim is helped by Barbara Taylor (“Babs”), one of Our Celebration’s long-serving workers. Each week, clients sit down together to read and talk about the works they’re reading. Recently, the group finished ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee and is about to embark upon Emily Brontë’s ‘ Wuthering Heights ’. Tim also likes to introduce clients to books they might not have normally encountered, as well as covering better known titles. 

When I spoke to Tim, he explained how clients are initially quite shy and worried about the prospect of reading aloud: "People are usually very quiet to begin with, although there is no pressure for anyone to read out passages. Over time, however, many of the participants gradually build up confidence and volunteer to read to everyone". The reading group also allows clients the opportunity to debate the issues raised in the literature and express their own opinions.

The reading group, Tim feels, promotes a calm and positive atmosphere, where people can lose themselves for a couple of hours a week in a novel. The group also finds time to cover other types of literature, be it short stories, poems and even plays. It welcomes ideas for new materials to read and hopes to make more trips back to the theatre, which have been very popular in the past.

Tim believes there are many benefits to coming to the group: " Reading is good for improving concentration and clients are having to think about the works for themselves, being challenged to form their own responses and reactions. Perhaps the group's greatest achievement has been getting those people who weren't previously interested in reading passionate about literature and learning to love books".

Breathing space

Since coming to Our Celebration, he's learnt that, for clients, encountering other areas of the mental health system can be quite daunting. "The activity groups at held at Our Celebration are a welcome alternative to going through the more formal, colder NHS system. At the centre, people feel more relaxed and it gives them a space to express themselves".