The Universal Reading Foundation has joined the EURead network, which brings together 35 organizations from 23 European countries that work locally to improve and promote reading. This is a great distinction and appreciation of the FPC's activities and an opportunity to exchange experiences and cooperate on a broader, European field.
The aim of EURead is to bring together and support local, national initiatives dedicated to promoting book culture and popularizing reading. The consortium was founded in 2000, bringing together organizations that believe that reading is the condition for conscious participation in today's diverse world, especially in the era of digital media dominance. Reaching for books by citizens is the foundation for building healthy societies and stable democracies. Members of the organization successfully work in their countries to raise the level of reading, and also - fight social exclusion, which leads to not reading.
The goals of the Universal Reading Foundation are consistent with the assumptions of EURead. We are delighted with the invitation and join EURead with a deep conviction: the world is currently experiencing one of the greatest technological revolutions in history – habits developed over generations homo sapiens have been turned upside down. Defining the role of reading books, the relationships with other people that result from it, the quality of interpersonal contacts and the individual well-being of each one that reading provides – all of this has become extremely important today. – emphasizes Maria Deskur, head of FPC.
The EURead network contributes to raising public awareness of the need to improve reading levels at national and European levels. Its members meet regularly to exchange knowledge and experiences from their own countries. The aim of such activities is to develop further, common strategies for promoting reading. The organisations associated with EUReads include the British BookTrust, the German Stiftung Lesen, and the Institute for Children's and Youth Media SIKJM from Stockholm. The Polish members include the Book Institute.
One of the main areas of EURead's activities is supporting and developing existing programs and creating new initiatives aimed primarily at children, as the youngest readers. These include providing books to the excluded, popularizing not only common, aloud reading, but also dedicated guides. The community of institutions also allows for supporting the area of research, developing it and sharing results and conclusions.
Reading is the foundation of democracy, and it has been known for decades how important reading books and talking in childhood is for our entire lives. Advanced critical thinking and discourse analysis skills appear to be a necessary and essential condition for our functioning in times when the world is torn by conflicts, and false information is increasingly difficult to separate from the truth. We are glad that the Universal Reading Foundation, whose work we know and appreciate, is joining our ranks – emphasizes Dr. Joerg Maas, President of EURead.
The activities of the Foundation for Universal Reading are part of the mission of EURead; it runs programs promoting reading in cooperation with various stakeholder groups. These are not only groups related to education and culture, but also environments of people who do not deal with this topic on a daily basis. An important assumption is the cooperation of three sectors. Therefore, FPC initiates cooperation with central institutions and local governments, as well as business and non-governmental organizations. Like EURead, FPC operates on the basis of scientific research, reaching people who do not read and are therefore excluded. It focuses on the availability of books, as well as encouraging people to take up the activity of reading and build the habit of daily reading; it shows the wide benefits of participating in the culture of books and the strong impact of reading on children's health, but also the enormous importance of improving the state of reading for the future of subsequent generations.
FPC campaigns include activities on several levels – popularizing reading by indicating methods to achieve set goals (Supermoc Książek), creating a community of reading leaders (Ratownicy Czytatelnictwa), building the need for reading as a condition for the development of cities and societies at the local and local government level (#CzytanieRządzi). In addition, the Foundation initiates cooperation of the publishing industry (#TataTeżĆzyta), provides international support as part of solidarity with Ukraine (Book Give Refuge, Literacy for Democracy). In the new version of the program Książka na Przepis. Recepta na sukces (first implemented in 2019), FPC emphasizes the impact of reading on children's health and development, including the medical community in the topic of reading.
The Universal Reading Foundation emphasizes the importance of cooperation in fulfilling its mission. Therefore, it invites all those who want to support pro-reading projects to contact us.