Reading Force Practice as research in the context of a shared-reading project for Armed Forces families

Reading Force is a project within the Armed Forces to encourage improved communication between families and communities through shared reading. Forces families were encouraged to form informal book groups within both their immediate and wider family (particularly including family members who were not geographically close), to choose a title that all would commit to read (or have read to them), and to contribute their thoughts and responses in a free, bespoke, project scrapbook. Completed scrapbooks could be kept by the family or submitted to obtain feedback and a range of donated prizes. The scheme was launched as a pilot in the UK garrison town of Aldershot in 2011 and has since been extended. This paper reports on the project's initial establishment through practice as research; how what was learned in the process could support the designated community; and the project's outcomes and anticipated future.