The Mohn Westlake Foundation is proud to be supporting BookTrust to find new ways of inspiring a love of reading among disadvantaged children.

The Mohn Westlake Foundation’s grant will fund the development of a multi-book reading offer carefully tailored to support a range of vulnerable children aged 0-13, such as those recovering from trauma or in need of mental health support, adopted children and potentially for children on the edge of care.

Using the charity’s successful Letterbox Club programme, which is designed for children in care, as a model, a small development team is developing this book gifting model, engaging with experts such as children’s social work teams, heads of virtual schools, fostering agencies and those supporting adopted children. The new multi-book gifting model will be piloted with 1,700 children over the next three years.

The Mohn Westlake Foundation’s grant will support BookTrust to test and pilot other innovative activities to engage families who are not confident with their reading. It will also help fund BookTrust’s large-scale transformation of its early years programme, which is currently in progress.

Alongside these, BookTrust is developing a storyteller pack to support early years practitioners, giving them the skills and confidence to bring stories to life in ways that will engage harder to reach families.

And for families who speak a different language at home, The Mohn Westlake Foundations’s funding will help to increase delivery of dual language books to reach a further 10,000 children.

Reading has a lifelong positive impact on a child, improving their health and wellbeing, creativity and educational outcomes. The partnership between The Mohn Westlake Foundation and BookTrust aims is to help disadvantaged children to read regularly and by choice, and to support their families in this aim.

To learn more about this project, please visit the grantee’s website: www.booktrust.org.uk/