RIF makes readers

Enabling children to build their own libraries at home can be the first step to encouraging a love of reading. This is the philosophy behind Reading Is Fundamental UK (RIF), a national, non-profit-making organisation that provides opportunities for children to choose and keep their own books. In the US, RIF Inc, the inspiration behind the UK organisation, has been giving books to children for more than 30 years.

But while book provision is at the heart of the UK initiative, sponsored by sugar giant Tate & Lyle and supported by other corporate sponsorship and local government funding, the organisation has a much wider remit. It aims to create a climate in homes, schools and communities that actively promotes children's reading.

Just over a year ago, former director of RIF Roy Blatchford described a scenario where, no matter how deprived an area, its inhabitants would have access to books (The Bookseller, 20th November 1998). It went like this: "Borders—in a grand gesture of social altruism and commercial self-interest—opens one of its great lifestyle books/music/coffee superstores on an edge-of-city estate. It opens from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week, providing its usual programme of book and music attractions. The store becomes a centre where the whole community tastes the fun and fundamentals of reading." Mums drop in with their children, and teenagers hang out because it is cool to be seen there.

While Borders does not figure in one of RIF's latest projects, at Leigh Park, a large housing estate near Portsmouth, other elements from Mr Blatchford's vision are in place. The project covers 16 schools (two of them secondary) in a region where, as is the case with so many communities, there is no bookshop. RIF has worked at a number of different levels to make books more accessible across the community. Given the absence of a bookshop, the organisation has been involved in discussions with the local Asda supermarket to increase its book range. An indirect result of this is that Asda volunteers are now working to promote reading in the local schools. RIF has also helped one of the main local employers set up a library of children's books at its factory, encouraging parents to read with their children and, for some, to improve their own reading skills.

The distribution of books among schools in Leigh Park aims, like other RIF programmes, to encourage parental involvement in children's reading, says RIF director Sally Champion. "Our primary goal is for children to choose and keep books, and to have an association with reading that is pleasurable. But we also want to involve parents in that process. Often parents won't go into a bookshop, but if they are involved in the book selections for our school-based RIF programmes, they start to find out what is available."

Within the schools themselves, RIF aims to reach every child in years one, four and seven—from the ages of four to 12—with a free book distribution three times a year. In Leigh Park the book distribution programme included a day of activities that brought together groups from different schools—two of which are rivals. The groups met on neutral territory and worked on a project together to help create a 12-page newspaper, based on the RIF initiative.

Leigh Park is just one of RIF's Book FUNds schemes, large-scale projects that operate across a city, borough or neighbourhood. Others are under way in Exeter, Derby, Feltham in west London, Newham in east London and Newport in south Wales. Through these, RIF operates alongside community bodies, attracting funding from local education authorities and businesses. By developing partnerships at this level, the Leigh Park programme has expanded far beyond RIF's main remit, to provide free books to children three times a year. But, as one mother pointed out, "Three events a year don't make a reader." However, if those events are made the starting point of a wider programme, you do start to "make readers".

RIF is also conducting Book FUNds projects in the pre-school sector, where research shows that an early introduction to books can make a considerable difference to whether or not a child enjoys reading later in life. The national Bookstart programme targets babies of up to nine months and their parents or carers, but that leaves a gap of three or four years before the children start school.

Ms Champion says: "We still work mainly with primary school children but concentrate our expansion on early year projects." Many of RIF's projects for this age group dovetail with SureStart, the government-supported, multi-agency initiative that aims to target young children who do not have the same access to support organisations as others. The agencies involved include the Department for Education and Employment, as well as community-based organisations such as play schools and nurseries.

Brent in north London is host to one of the many SureStart projects centred at a library. At Willesden Green Library, a programme called Blast Off invites parents and their children to join classes on numeracy and literacy. "By coming into the library regularly, parents can also find out what else is on offer and start to use the library in different ways," says Ms Champion. As part of the 12-week course, rif helps children to choose and buy their own books.

She adds: "The impact of the National Year of Reading and National Literacy Strategy have been enormously positive in focusing people's attention on reading. Schools continue that work, but there is still a gap in terms of what happens at home. We want what happens at schools to be reinforced in the home, and that is why we work with communities and with other organisations to promote reading in different environments."

There are still many areas that RIF aims to tackle, from children in care to young offenders. And much of its work depends on support from publishers, which contribute through the discounts they give to RIF on the books bought for free distribution and through support at events.

For example, Pat Shepherd, sales manager of children's books at Transworld, has attended a number of book distributions at Books Etc to talk to children about how books are made. "I take part in these events for a number of reasons, and especially because children get so much enjoyment from books," she explains. "But there are often a number of children at the distributions who are completely lost when it comes to choosing a book and need help; they just haven't bought one before. RIF is really getting books into the hands of children who wouldn't normally have them."

Charlotte McClandish, children's sales officer at Penguin, adds: "RIF organises some quite significant projects involving author visits, which can make these exciting and fun events. They can really attract a child to particular authors. And giving three books a year does have an impact—it really is a jumping off point for a child."