SACHA KEMP-POTTER is raising money for Children's Book Project
Story
I have already raised a fabulous £1670 for the Children's Book Project in the last month, it is showing on a separate page in my Just Giving fundraising account.
About The Children’s Book Project
One in three disadvantaged children across the UK has fewer than ten books of their own at home*, and one in ten has none
The Children’s Book Project seeks to tackle book poverty and to give every child the opportunity to own their own book. We believe in empowering children to choose a book they are motivated to read and in the power of reading communities. We put on book gifting events that are inclusive, joyful and have a tangible impact on every family that participates
Book ownership has been directly linked with improved mental health amongst children and a greater propensity to read for pleasure, whilst reading fluency itself has a significant impact on children’s successful progression through education. By age eleven, there is a 12-month language development gap between children from book rich homes and those with fewer than ten books*. Our aim is to tackle the attainment gap arising from low book ownership. We want every child to feel part of their reading community and to identify with books that they have enjoyed.
We work closely with prisons, women’s groups and schools to gift gently used books to children nationwide, forging links with settings whose communities may benefit most from access to free books. In every instance we work with a provider to help them plan the most creative and enjoyable book gifting event.
We gifted our one millionth book in June 2023 and thiis year we will gift over 350,000 books to children via their schools and other settings. The vast majority of these come from families keen to find new homes for the books their children have grown out of.
*’Book ownership in 2022’ © National Literacy Trust 2022
Prison programme
Our prison programme 'Share a Story' was developed in conjunction with prison family liaison teams and seeks to provide prisoners with the means to connect, reconnect and build bridges with the children and young people in their family through stories, pictures and shared experience. The gift of a personally selected book from a parent in prison to their child demonstrates a desire to connect and provides an accessible, low pressure means of engaging with family members and building / rebuilding relationships. The child receives a gift from their parent, knows they are thought of and shares common ground. It is our ambition that funds raised by those generously running the Royal Parks Half Marathon for us will cover the internal running costs of this programme for a year, and help to gift 50k books to more than 10,000 children with a parent in one of our 22 partner prisons.