My Story is the title of a Reading Families funded project working with parents to produce a book about their child's life which can then be read out loud with the child. 
The books produced fill the gap between baby books, which often finish at an exciting stage of development for the child, and the National Record of Achievement which deals mainly with school-related achievements.  Most children love to hear about themselves and especially as they get older, they may want to know more and more about the time before their memories begin.  The story can be added to as they grow.
It is hoped that these books will provide children with a tangible record of their early achievements, qualities and attributes, providing a continuous narrative of their development and contributing positively to their sense of identity.  If the project goes well, there are plans to expand it to include refugee families for whom the continuity of their life story has been fractured.  Contact 020 7284 8370.

Working with parents - Stoke-on-Trent
Building on its NYR initiatives with parents such as Storysacks and Family Reading Circles, Stoke-on-Trent LEA has developed a Parents in Partnership linking adult education and the community education department of the local FE college.  The College in the Community has now extended its programme to cover parents as both educators and learners and regularly attracts 1000 parents each term into school in the daytime to take part in everything from crafts and IT to family literacy literacy and numeracy. Contact 01782 236880.

Arts links for community events

Using the arts to involve the community - Warwickshire
Warwickshire Libraries & Heritage benefited from support provided by their Marketing Department during the NYR, allowing wide circulation of five editions of a special newsletter, quarterly events diaries and regular press releases.  The involvement of well-known poets in two North Warwickshire projects - Big Writing and Word for Word - demonstrated the value of using artists able to galvanise audiences who would not normally be interested in talking about language. Contact 01926 412550.

Using reading to link up the community

The Big Gay Read

The Big Gay Read is co-ordinated by queerupnorth, commonword, Time to Read and Manchester, Salford & Blackpool Library services. The winner of the Big Gay Read will be announced at a special event during the queerupnorth Festival in May 2006.
www.biggayread.com/

For 2006 the Big Gay Read has been extended to London with leaflets being written specifically. The London Big Gay Read website is www.londonlibraries.org/servlets/home

NCB to lead DfES parenting project

The National Children's Bureau is to lead a two-year Department for Education and Skills initiative on parents' involvement in their young children's learning. The project, which will be run by NCB's early childhood unit in partnership with the London Borough of Camden and children's charity Coram Family, aims to help parents give their children the best start in life by encouraging parental participation in children's centres and other early years settings, and providing support for parents to engage with their children's learning.

Sue Owen, director of the early childhood unit, said, "In his pre-budget report, chancellor Gordon Brown stated that 'parents should be able to receive support long before compulsory schooling begins'. We hope that this project will help make this aspiration a reality."

For more information email sowern@ncb.org.uk

(Children Now, 12 July 2005)

New Horizons Estate Reading Campaign - Islington Library and Cultural Services
The aims of the project have been to get as many people back into reading as possible. The project targets the most disadvantaged people in Islington, a borough with the third greatest extent of deprivation in England. To reach these people Islington Libraries opened small, informal community libraries on the five most deprived housing estates, taking books into the heart of the community. This project was shortlisted for the Libraries Change Lives Award, March 2005.

Sunderland's Big Read links up the community
The National Year of Reading funded project in Sunderland, The Big Read, has also had lasting benefits. Links between the three partners - the community library, local primary school and residential home for the elderly - are continuing and the library has been made more accessible for all generations.  Contact Jane Hall on 0191 514 8404 or jane.hall@edcom.sunderland.gov.uk

Reading and Reminiscence project
Newcastle Libraries' Reading and Reminiscence project, supported by the National Year of Reading, evolved into the more ambitious Digital Memories, which takes a multi-media approach to recording local people's individual stories. Having started with reminiscence workshops using photographic resources, it developed to involve a multi-generational dimension with local schools and the wider use of memorabilia in care homes, libraries, day centres and other local groups. 0191 224 3277

Community Book Link bus promotes reading to young families  
West Sussex County Council is continuing to build on partnership activity initiated during the NYR, with a particular focus on young families through its Community Book Link bus staffed by youth, basic skills and library staff. Contact 01243 265928.

ROWA!'s bus reaches out to the community
One of the many success stories from the Derbyshire-based literacy initiative Read On - Write Away! is a double-decker bus offering opportunities for parents, children, adults and young people to gain or improve a range of basic skills in their own communities.  Funded by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust with revenue coming from SRB 5, the bus targets 33 wards in the North Derbyshire and North Nottinghamshire Coalfields area.  It provides mobile access to basic literacy, numeracy and ICT provision through its 11 IT work stations, meeting and training facilities, TV and video and children's activity space.  Contact 01623 819911.

Leeds TEC helps build literacy links
Leeds TEC helps link literacy provision within the community. Among many projects, it has supported the production of a directory listing all literacy provision in the city, identified gaps to be filled such as courses for working adults and distributed Learning to Read Should be Fun leaflets for parents. National Year of Reading funding went towards marketing and distribution of Literacy Listens, an audio cassette featuring basic skills students talking about their positive experience of adult literacy provision.

Using storysacks to reach communities
Southampton Libraries won a £14,592 Wolfson Fund 2000 award to establish six projects within day centres, homes and community premises set up by partner organisations to meet the needs of a variety of groups including the Chinese community, a Black mental health group, Afro-Caribbean groups and the Social Service Family Project.   Building on the success of the National Year of Reading-funded Roshni Asian Elders Storysacks Project, each project produced story sacks which were developed through discussion and workshops. Contact 023 8083 2216.
Find out more about the project by reading Small stories, big impact, by Siobhan McGarrigle an article from Literacy Today.

Setting up a cafe library
According to Jane Stubbs, Service Opportunities Manager with the Leeds Library & Information Services, the NYR brought an opportunity to translate theory into practice for the Leeds Literacy Partnership. Links with Leeds TEC, YMCA Training, Yorkshire Arts, Barnado's, the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Museums & Galleries and local businesses led to some innovative promotions including the award-winning Double Exposure season aimed at the 18-35 age group. Building on the NYR's Screen Reads month, this included a mini library in The Moderno, a popular Leeds café, with figures showing that 53% of visitors joined the café library.  Contact 0113 214 3337.

Northamptonshire Black History Project wins 2005 Libraries Change Lives Award

The Northamptonshire Black History Project was the winner of the 2005 Libraries Change Lives Award, presented by Benjamin Zephaniah at the Library and Information Show in Birmingham. The aim of the project is to document and acknowledge the presence and contribution of people of Asian, African and Caribbean origins in Northamptonshire, a contribution that has been little recorded and documented. So far it has uncovered 660 references stretching from the 12th century to the present day, created an oral history archive of over 185 interviews and collected the archives of 11 Black community organisations. The Black History Project has also encouraged innovative learning for young people, such as a partnership with Northampton Town Football Club sharing stories of Black Historical Figures as part of the Football Racism and Cultural Heritage project.

Carolyn Abel, the director of Northamptonshire's Black History Project, says of winning the award, "We are thrilled to receive this accolade for our community-led and community-inspired initiative. It is not often that grass-root organisations like ours, particularly Black groups, receive awards for excellent work, often undertaken in a voluntary capacity. It just shows what a common passion can do for bringing people together. We fully acknowledge the partnership involvement of agencies like Northamptonshire Libraries and Information Service and the Record Office, as well as the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Black groups that have played a significant role in creating and developing such a fantastic project."

Nigel Thomas, chair of the judges commented, "This project is a fantastic example of how libraries can partner community-led initiatives, and serves as a model that can be replicated in libraries across the country. Northamptonshire's Black History Project is proving how vision and commitment have changed and enhanced the lives of people whose history has been forgotten and unacknowledged for years."

(CILIP press release, 20 April 2005)

Reaching out to the Black community
Brent Libraries (with a grant of £49,758 from the DCMS/Wolfson Fund 2000) launched Blacklines on 2 November 2000, building on its existing involvement with the annual Black History Month by developing readers specifically from the black community, generally under-represented in library usage. The aim wass to promote contemporary black fiction through the borough's libraries and a key satellite collection in the community, supported by a programme of events, reader's promotions, reading groups, writers groups and a Blacklines website.  Contact 020 8937 3485.

Reaching out to the Bangladeshi community
Milton Keynes Libraries won a £7,500 DCMS/Wolfson 2000 grant to develop library services for the large Bangladeshi community in Bletchley through a series of library events, reading groups, leaflets and publicity materials in order to promote inter-cultural links and increased access.  Contact 01908 372797.

Reaching out to the Turkish community
Hackney Libraries (with a grant of £66,649 from the DCMS/Wolfson Fund 2000), in partnership with Haringey, Islington and the Arts Council funded literature project Centreprise, targeted the Turkish community.  Building on existing social inclusion work, the project centred on storytelling for the under-fives in 16 venues plus expanding Bookstart through provision of Turkish-language materials.  It also worked with adults learning English and aimed to increase library membership.  Contact 020 8356 2546.

Reaching out to refugees
Kingston upon Hull City Libraries is working in partnership with the Wyke Area Committee of Hull to develop a collection of multi-cultural library resources for asylum seekers, refugees and their families, resident in the Wyke area of Hull.  The collection will support the dual language and multi-cultural material already in Hull Central Library.
There are plans to include a selection of adult light fiction and poetry in different languages, reading skills material, basic skills material and dictionaries, picture books for children in dual languages, English books on tape for children and educational toys for young children.  Contact 01482 331691.

Reaching out to asylum seekers
Kent Arts and Libraries' Words Without Frontiers project was awarded DCMS/Wolfson 2001 funding (£75,000) to work with asylum seekers and refugees who are residing, working and/or studying in the area, even if only temporarily. The project aimed to provide them with the means for keeping, using and promoting their cultural heritage, learning English and becoming active members of the community. It trained Kent Arts and Libraries staff in acknowledging the particular needs of asylum seekers and refugees, and fostering better understanding and cooperation within existing British communities.  Read more or contact 01622 605242.

Indic Link project targets minority language communities
Brent Libraries' Indic Link project was awarded DCMS/Wolfson 2001 funding (£101,060) to raise the profile of Indic writing in English and three mother tongue languages within its local community. The project worked in partnership with the library services of three other culturally diverse communities: Harrow and Hillingdon in London and Leicester. Support was provided by the reader development agency Book Communications. The project piloted reader development promotions in the four languages and embedded this approach into both mainstream library practice and ongoing community activities and festivals. A website was developed to help the profession to develop best practice on this area.  Contact 020 8937 3149.