A word from Stephen, Beyond Words Chief Executive
I’m delighted to be able to share news of lots of exciting events, announcements and project developments that have been happening at Beyond Words over the past few months. Happy reading!
With Christmas just around the corner, we are offering a special festive discount of 20% off selected books.
Our books make a perfect present for teenagers and adults with learning disabilities – why not share a story (or two!) this Christmas? Browse our bookshop, here.
In September, we launched our latest book, Going to Church, in the beautiful setting of Lambeth Palace. The first in a mini-series about faith and community, Going to Church follows the journey of a young man as he explores his relationship with the Church, makes new friends and is supported to engage and participate fully with this community.
The event also marked the launch of our Challenge 500 initiative. Over the next five years, we plan to establish 500 new book clubs through church communities across the UK, building partnerships with Anglican, Catholic, Methodist and other Church communities. We look forward to announcing some new book clubs very soon.
We’re still looking for partners to develop and pilot our faith community resources and funders to help us grow and share our work with the faith community. If you’d like to get involved or find out more, please email admin@booksbeyondwords.co.uk
The autumn has also seen major development and testing of our forthcoming ‘Moving towards Work’ series, funded by the Department for Work and Pensions. The series looks to help young people and adults with learning disabilities explore ideas around transition from school, volunteering, getting a job and getting the most from work.
The four books making up the series have now been trialled by hundreds of people with learning disabilities across the country for their feedback. We are also partnering with six employability support organisations to test how well the books can encourage people to imagine themselves in work and ultimately motivate them to try and achieve their goals.
Staff from our partners at East Kent College, Kisharon, Langdon, Skillnet Group, The Grange and Tower Project have all attended specialist training sessions with us, in the first step of a year-long pilot programme using the books with the people they support.
The ‘Moving towards Work’ series will be launched in spring 2018. If you’re interested in pre-ordering the book set, please email admin@booksbeyondwords.co.uk
Introduction to Beyond Words: Book Clubs/Reading in large and small groups and in pairs
14 December 2017; City Lit, Holborn, London (10:30am-4:00pm)
This training event is for support staff, family carers, volunteers and people wishing to start book clubs in libraries, day centre activity groups and general reading groups.
Beyond Words training offers an insight into why the books were developed and the care taken in the production process. Our training introduces people to Beyond Words, our ethos, methods and rationale, offering a range of tested reading techniques for general reading and specialist areas of support and learning.
For more information or to book your place, please email training@booksbeyondwords.co.uk
The newly developed ‘In the Library… Books Beyond Words Plus’ programme is now fully underway in library spaces across four London boroughs.
This Arts Council funded project, run in partnership with Carillion library services, has created over 15 specialist reading groups for people with learning disabilities. These book groups offer people the opportunity to come together in a community space, where they can share experiences, build friendships and develop support networks, whilst reading Beyond Words picture books.
Throughout the programme, the book groups will be visited by artists and drama coaches to offer group members the chance to experience the richness of the visual arts scene and take part in a range of creative activities. Each group will also be crafting their own display book, full of drawings, photographs and quotes to represent their book group’s journey.
By increasing the visibility of learning disabilities within the community and providing group supporters with expert training, this project is helping to challenge and transform public attitudes towards people with learning disabilities. If you would like more information about the project, please email Vicki at vpartridge@booksbeyondwords.co.uk
We hope you enjoyed hearing about our latest news and offers. If you have any comments about our newsletter please email us at admin@booksbeyondwords.co.uk
Thanks for your continued support.
Best wishes,
The Beyond Words Team