Committed volunteering
We lead a network of volunteer readers who share readings aloud of children’s picture books from very early childhood to old age in multiple places in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais, mainly with people living far away. of writing.
This network completes and enriches the actions of salaried readers by offering readings in structures with limited budgets or as a relay for salaried interventions.
In order to ensure a quality of intervention, we welcome, train and support volunteers who can mobilize time, energy and enthusiasm. We thank them warmly!
Read with me also thanks the structures that welcome volunteer readers for the trust granted.
Become a volunteer reader
A collective project
Becoming a volunteer reader means joining an organized project based on an intervention charter, a philosophy, a certain approach to reading aloud, a commitment to regularity and duration.
Volunteer readers benefit from a support system, which includes an initial interview, training, monitoring and support in the field.
They mainly use children’s picture books, chosen for their literary, narrative and graphic qualities and work with babies, children, adolescents and adults, always in conjunction with the professionals of the partner structure.
Becoming a volunteer reader takes time. Volunteer readers are invited to train regularly by participating in follow-up meetings, internships, conferences, meetings and reading committees organized by Read with me.
Reading places
- Maternal and child protection center waiting rooms
- Nurseries
- Early childhood places
- Nursery and elementary schools
- Social centers
- Leisure centers
- Residential homes for children or families
- Reception centers for asylum seekers
- Reception areas for traveling people
- Places of detention
- Hospital services: pediatrics, geriatrics
- Libraries, media libraries
- Medico-social establishments
- EHPAD, homes for the elderly
- Charity places, food distribution places
The training of our volunteer readers is financed by the Hauts-de-France Region.
Portraits of some volunteers
I worked in a Maternal and Child Protection Center (PMI) and after my retirement, I discovered Read With Me on the internet. I liked knowing that she was involved in PMI and now I have been a volunteer reader for a few years in Arrageois.
First in consultation with PMI, and more recently in Ephad, I I also read in kindergarten for a year and in micro creche. I like to read aloud to share the "magic" of words and images that take us so far into the imagination, for this captivated gaze of adults and children, for the melody of language.
Of all the picture books I like, I chose "Pomelo grows". I love him for his naive drawings, offbeat in an imaginary and so poetic world. I love it for the text: Pomelo's questions remind me of the "whys" children hear so often.
This text has a very philosophical side, deep, full of hope for the future.
"Pomelo grows Up" [Pomelo Grows Up] by Ramona Badescu and Benjamin Chaud – Ed. Albin Michel Jeunesse – 2010.
First in consultation with PMI, and more recently in Ephad, I I also read in kindergarten for a year and in micro creche. I like to read aloud to share the "magic" of words and images that take us so far into the imagination, for this captivated gaze of adults and children, for the melody of language.
Of all the picture books I like, I chose "Pomelo grows". I love him for his naive drawings, offbeat in an imaginary and so poetic world. I love it for the text: Pomelo's questions remind me of the "whys" children hear so often.
This text has a very philosophical side, deep, full of hope for the future.
"Pomelo grows Up" [Pomelo Grows Up] by Ramona Badescu and Benjamin Chaud – Ed. Albin Michel Jeunesse – 2010.
I joined, at their invitation, the Read With Me team after a particularly painful episode in my life. Their communicative enthusiasm, the meeting of all their picture books and many of their authors, the speakers with whom the group thinks and works, opened up a whole host of new horizons for me.
I work near my home, in a nursery school with four classes, every afternoon, with groups of 3 to 5 children maximum, but the time I devote to it is negligible compared to the welcome I receive. I receive there and happy moments spent with the children and the picture books they ask me to read to them.
I chose "The Little Guy's Big Hunger" because I find this little guy very nice. Casually, are reviewed here with humor and lightness, the vital needs of each other, the work of men, sharing, life in short...
"La grosse faim de P'tit Bonhomme" [The Little Guy's Big Hunger] by Pierre Delye and Cécile Hudrisier - Ed. Didier Jeunesse – 2005
I work near my home, in a nursery school with four classes, every afternoon, with groups of 3 to 5 children maximum, but the time I devote to it is negligible compared to the welcome I receive. I receive there and happy moments spent with the children and the picture books they ask me to read to them.
I chose "The Little Guy's Big Hunger" because I find this little guy very nice. Casually, are reviewed here with humor and lightness, the vital needs of each other, the work of men, sharing, life in short...
"La grosse faim de P'tit Bonhomme" [The Little Guy's Big Hunger] by Pierre Delye and Cécile Hudrisier - Ed. Didier Jeunesse – 2005
I have always loved reading stories to children, whether in my professional life as a speech therapist or with my family. At a significant turning point in my life, meeting Read With Me was an inspiring source... I deepened my knowledge of reading to toddlers and the approach of picture book authors.
At this crossroads, is "Apple Apple Apple". It was on the recommended list for PMI, I got it, but frankly, I didn't particularly like it.
And during one of my first PMI sessions, I was completely amazed by the gaze of a 3-month-old baby Lola, staring at the shiny red apples, then at the bold black words, moving her mouth when I was going "fang, fang, fang" and who turned to my face when I turned the last page. Emotion shared with the mother, who told me: "I didn't think it was possible".
This has often happened again with the same intensity and these experiences have revealed to me the incredible richness of this book where everything is important. The baby's perceptual system is stimulated harmoniously: rhythm of words and drawings, colors, sizes, shine, little poem at the end that takes it all in...
A meeting with the author, organized by Read With Me, filled me by putting a person behind the work and making me aware of all the requirements of the authors and the knowledge that they must have immense aptitudes of their readers, whatever their age.
"Pomme Pomme Pomme" [Apple Apple Apple] by Corinne Dreyfuss – Ed. Thierry Magnier – 2015
At this crossroads, is "Apple Apple Apple". It was on the recommended list for PMI, I got it, but frankly, I didn't particularly like it.
And during one of my first PMI sessions, I was completely amazed by the gaze of a 3-month-old baby Lola, staring at the shiny red apples, then at the bold black words, moving her mouth when I was going "fang, fang, fang" and who turned to my face when I turned the last page. Emotion shared with the mother, who told me: "I didn't think it was possible".
This has often happened again with the same intensity and these experiences have revealed to me the incredible richness of this book where everything is important. The baby's perceptual system is stimulated harmoniously: rhythm of words and drawings, colors, sizes, shine, little poem at the end that takes it all in...
A meeting with the author, organized by Read With Me, filled me by putting a person behind the work and making me aware of all the requirements of the authors and the knowledge that they must have immense aptitudes of their readers, whatever their age.
"Pomme Pomme Pomme" [Apple Apple Apple] by Corinne Dreyfuss – Ed. Thierry Magnier – 2015
It was my job as a journalist that made me discover Read With Me during a report. Very quickly I wanted to get involved as a volunteer in 2009.
Since then, I have had very good years of reading with the prisoners of the Lille-Sequedin prison, and imprisoned mothers with their babies(*). A wealth of exchanges that I did not suspect, in a harsh, constrained, monitored universe. The hundreds of picture books that we read there, I see them, in a universe where the doors are closed, like so many windows open on the imagination, the other, the world.
"Mrs. Meyer the Bird" is one of my favorite picture books. The story is a bit long and you have to feel the moment when the group's attention is there, ready to hold the time of the story. And all the times I was able to recount it, the discussion that followed was of unsuspected richness and depth. A simple story, made up of little nothings, paper casseroles, mint tea and a crow that didn't want to fly and then one day...
I recently gave it to my mom. She had managed to tame a blackbird that came every day to grab a few crumbs of bread on her terrace. Robert. Sometimes he even ventured as far as the threshold of the house. And then one day he disappeared. A small blackbird took over. Roberto… The story does not say if my mom tried to fly with him.
"Remue-ménage chez Madame K" [Mrs. Meyer the Bird] by Wolf Erlbruch – Ed. Milan – 2013
(*) to read: "Lire délivre, atelier lecture en prison de femmes [Read Delivers, Reading Workshop in Women's Prison]" by Marianne Mas, Ed. Eres, 2019 - €9.50
Since then, I have had very good years of reading with the prisoners of the Lille-Sequedin prison, and imprisoned mothers with their babies(*). A wealth of exchanges that I did not suspect, in a harsh, constrained, monitored universe. The hundreds of picture books that we read there, I see them, in a universe where the doors are closed, like so many windows open on the imagination, the other, the world.
"Mrs. Meyer the Bird" is one of my favorite picture books. The story is a bit long and you have to feel the moment when the group's attention is there, ready to hold the time of the story. And all the times I was able to recount it, the discussion that followed was of unsuspected richness and depth. A simple story, made up of little nothings, paper casseroles, mint tea and a crow that didn't want to fly and then one day...
I recently gave it to my mom. She had managed to tame a blackbird that came every day to grab a few crumbs of bread on her terrace. Robert. Sometimes he even ventured as far as the threshold of the house. And then one day he disappeared. A small blackbird took over. Roberto… The story does not say if my mom tried to fly with him.
"Remue-ménage chez Madame K" [Mrs. Meyer the Bird] by Wolf Erlbruch – Ed. Milan – 2013
(*) to read: "Lire délivre, atelier lecture en prison de femmes [Read Delivers, Reading Workshop in Women's Prison]" by Marianne Mas, Ed. Eres, 2019 - €9.50
What a beautiful gift offered by a friend: "You are going to be on retirement and you like to read to your grandchildren, so join Read With Me. You will meet a wonderful, passionate team there, who will accompany you, raise your awareness, open on the world of children's picture books, a world full of humanity, humor, tenderness, respect for others where we play with words and images, where we tackle the big questions of life ".
I've been a Read With Me fan for several years; what a joy this discovery of the picture books that touch you, what a marvel to introduce them to the little ones in PMI (Moter and Child Protection center), to the older ones in a community center, and even to the oldest in the hospital in the geriatrics department… From the youngest to the oldest, emotions arise: words, silences, tears, joy, astonishment!
I chose "Owl Babies" among all those I like, because it was one of the first that Read With Me made me discover: an owl mother ensures the well-being of her little ones who, during her absence, support each other. I feel their anxiety of waiting and the confidence of his return. "So many stories, said their owl mom, you knew I was going to come back". The drawings are both very soft and so expressive, the text is sober, this book touches me. I read it again and again...
"Bébé Chouettes" [Owl Babies] by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson – Ed. The School of Recreation – 1993
I chose "Owl Babies" among all those I like, because it was one of the first that Read With Me made me discover: an owl mother ensures the well-being of her little ones who, during her absence, support each other. I feel their anxiety of waiting and the confidence of his return. "So many stories, said their owl mom, you knew I was going to come back". The drawings are both very soft and so expressive, the text is sober, this book touches me. I read it again and again...
"Bébé Chouettes" [Owl Babies] by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson – Ed. The School of Recreation – 1993
I've been a volunteer reader for Read With Me for quite a while. How many years?? I don't know anymore and it doesn't matter... When you love, you don't...!
I entered the world of stories through storytelling training and became an amateur storyteller. Then, I started reading for Read With Me. Because Read With Me makes the choice to read to children far from books and because I believe that access to culture is fundamental.
I read to children staying with their parents in a Reception Center for Asylum Seekers (CADA). Some evenings, when I leave work running to arrive on time for the reading session, my head stuffed with my day's work and my big bag of books at the end of my arm, I sometimes wonder why I keep on going. And the session ended, each time the same observation: I regained energy! The enthusiasm, the wonder, the astonishment, the laughter of the children, all this delights me and remobilizes me.
I don't have a favorite picture book. Among those for which I have a particular tenderness, this one: ''Shh! We Have a Plan''. I find its simple text, its clean graphics and its humor delightful. Its text built with sentences that come back like refrains opens up a space for shared reading and creates a bond with the children.
"Chut! On a un plan" [Shh! We Have a Plan] by Chris Haughton – Ed. Thierry Magnier – 2014
I entered the world of stories through storytelling training and became an amateur storyteller. Then, I started reading for Read With Me. Because Read With Me makes the choice to read to children far from books and because I believe that access to culture is fundamental.
I read to children staying with their parents in a Reception Center for Asylum Seekers (CADA). Some evenings, when I leave work running to arrive on time for the reading session, my head stuffed with my day's work and my big bag of books at the end of my arm, I sometimes wonder why I keep on going. And the session ended, each time the same observation: I regained energy! The enthusiasm, the wonder, the astonishment, the laughter of the children, all this delights me and remobilizes me.
I don't have a favorite picture book. Among those for which I have a particular tenderness, this one: ''Shh! We Have a Plan''. I find its simple text, its clean graphics and its humor delightful. Its text built with sentences that come back like refrains opens up a space for shared reading and creates a bond with the children.
"Chut! On a un plan" [Shh! We Have a Plan] by Chris Haughton – Ed. Thierry Magnier – 2014
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Find the whole series of portraits of volunteer readers HERE on our Facebook page!