This feature is the sixth and final article in a series that celebrates the accomplishments of National Affiliates of the International Development in Europe Committee (IDEC) of the International Reading Association (IRA). Their member organizations’ activity reports are compiled twice a year (in January and July), and we have summarized excerpts from these reports. Visit www.literacyeurope.org for more information and a list of national websites.

Spain
The Spanish Reading and Writing Association, known as Asociación Espaňola de Lectura y Escritura (AELE) is in the midst of preparing for their Ibero-American Forum of Learning and Literacy that will take place in University Federal Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) from October 26 to 28, 2011. The AELE collaborates with Research Group Literacy Literary (GPELL) linked to the Literacy Center, Reading and Writing (CEAL) in Brazil, and Association Portuguese for Literacy (Littera) to organize this forum with the theme “Where is literature?"  The forum proposes a broadening horizons of the discussion about the world and the literary texts, spaces, and discourses that give the forms to see where renewed transitions literature. This event will be attend by people from Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay and more. AELE and the Research Group of University Complutense of Madrid have created the Iberoamerican Network Research “Speaking, reading and writing practices: interrelationship between consigns and development of linguistic communicative competence”. This network is composed of researchers and teachers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Spain, and Uruguay. Telemaco´s Writing Club “Write as readers” social project is in development in four countries: Argentina, Chile, Peru and Spain. The main aims are: a) Implement proposals that encourage, in children and adolescents, the interaction “reading and writing texts" from a book and work with its author; and b) Supporting teachers in the educational development of proposals related to the processes of reading-writing-literature (process shared). The AELE has created a network between towns and cities of the different Spanish Autonomous Communities (CPLE Network) with the following aims: a) To facilitate inter-institutional actions allowing the advance towards the right to appropriate the language as a fundamental tool for active and democratic participation in knowledge society, and b) To provide places and tools for the interaction between towns and cities through reading and writing, helping in this way to increase the reading and writing rates in our societies. At this point, there is around 20 towns and cities in this Network. Visit www.asociacionaele.org for more information about AELE. 

Sweden
Most activities of the Swedish Council of International Reading Association (SCIRA) are arranged in the local groups and include lectures, in-service courses, study visits at different institutions, and writing competitions for students. Local groups have working relationships with various institutions, organizations, and professional associations that promote literacy, such as universities, public libraries, and teacher organizations. SCIRA’s journal Läsning (“Reading”) is published twice a year, in March and October, and carries articles by renowned researchers as well as practitioners, and information about a variety of activities within the area of literacy, on national and international level. SCIRA is proud of their sucessful Autumn two-day conference held in Umea on October 15 and 16. The program was published in the Spring edition of Läsning and on the website (www.scira.nu). The conference focused basic skills, including reading and mathematics, from different perspectives. The annual meeting and the Spring board meeting took place in Trollhattan on April 2 and 3. Now, SCIRA is focusing on the 2013 European Conference, “New Challenges – New Literacies,” which will be held in Jonkoping on August 6 to 9, 2013. 

The United Kingdom
The United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) has an extensive professional development program that recently included an international conference entitled Empowerment Through Literacy: Literacy Shaping Futures on July 15 to 17. National conferences included Talking to Learn: developing thinking in and through dialogue in London on June 24, New Methods for New Literacies in Sheffield on July 8 to 9, Writing and Writers in Schools in Birmingham in March, as well as the regional conferences Purpose and Pleasure in Writing in the Eastern Region in March, Talk to Underpin Digital and Traditional Literacies in Huddersfield on May 21, Learning Outside the Classroom in Cambridgeshire on June 23. In February, the Association  held a research symposium in London entitled Exploring Synergies in Literacy Research. The publish Literacy, Journal of Research in Reading, and English 5-11, as well as other publications available through a catalog found on their website. UKLA continues to support literacy projects in Zanzibar and Malawi and funds many other literacy projects. Visit www.ukla.org for more information about the United Kingdom Literacy Association.