Seeding a community of readers

The Canterbury Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers project

Between 2020 and 2023 the Canterbury Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers (COR) project provided over 7,800 books to children in care and on the edge of care to read and enjoy, in English, te reo Māori and other languages. It also provided shelving to display books, collateral with messaging around reading for pleasure (RfP), and information sessions for staff at Kingslea School and social workers about RfP and building reading communities.

Outcomes and impact

The project evaluation has found that this project has been highly successful. Children, young people, their families and whānau are enjoying and reading these books. There is a high uptake of books in te reo Māori and other languages, particularly bilingual books. The books are also being used therapeutically, and there has been evidence of layered and intergenerational impacts.

National Library and Christchurch Public Library have worked together to ensure the Canterbury COR project, while looking different in the next phase, will be sustained.

Alex Woodley was the researcher for the project. Alex is the founder and former director and now principal researcher at Point. In this interview, Alex discusses her research as the evaluator for the Canterbury COR project.

An interview with Alex Woodley about the project

Jo Buchan: Your report focuses on the Canterbury Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers Project, which started late 2020. Can you talk a bit about the project?

Alex Woodley: The Canterbury project is a cool project involving National Library and Kingslea School working with government and community support agencies in the region including Oranga Tamariki in youth justice settings. They want to weave a whāriki, a ground covering of support, to inspire children and young people in care or on the edge of care to read for pleasure.

These organisations got together and gave away beautiful free books to children, young people, their families and whānau so they'd be inspired to pick them up and read for fun, for pleasure. And that's because of all the lifelong benefits associated with reading.

Jo Buchan: Why was this project important in Canterbury?

Alex Woodley: It is a collective impact project, with each group and organisation working together and holding a different part of the jigsaw to be able to access children in care and in youth justice settings. National Library brought their knowledge of books and reading, and access to books to the project. And Kingslea School and Oranga Tamariki had relationships with the children and young people and their whānau.

Taking a developmental approach

Jo Buchan: Can you talk about the approach you took for your research?

Alex Woodley: We took a developmental evaluative approach. As the evaluator, we walked alongside the project, trying to understand what was working well, what wasn’t and what might need to change. For example, as we went, we learnt what types of books were popular.

Being uplifted and put into care can be traumatic, and the children and young people in care often had a background of trauma prior to that. Many had a background of educational trauma as well, so their reading level might have been lower than their peers. So graphic novels were hugely popular because the stories are in a visual format they can access. We fed this information into the project, and National Library funded more graphic novels.

Jo Buchan: What was the target age for this project?

Alex Woodley: When it started it was 3 through to 18. But by the time it finished, it was zero to 18, so the books were going into a wide range of settings and waiting rooms.

Jo Buchan: Can you talk about some of the impacts of the project?

Impact on access and reading

Alex Woodley: At the beginning of the project, there were project champions and people who were effectively organisation gatekeepers, who didn't believe the books and stories would be picked up by children and young people and read.

However, the interviewees said the children and young people have loved the books and appreciated being able to keep them and the project momentum just kept growing. As groups and organisations heard about it, they wanted to take part. An example was the Work and Income office at Rangiora. When they heard about the project, they said, ‘can we have books and a bookshelf in our waiting room too?’

Children in care or in youth justice settings don't tend to have a lot of possessions, including books, with them. So, another profound impact of the project was it gave children and young people access to books. Lack of access is compounded by their lack of access to libraries.

Impact on wellbeing

I was surprised at the extent of the impact the stories and books are having on wellbeing and the way the books are being used. We always expected that books could provide windows and mirrors. Windows into kind and more hopeful, wonderful lives. And mirrors so they didn't feel so isolated. They saw that other children and young people also go through tough times. The books were beautifully curated so there were often stories of hopefulness and hope.

A lot of the social workers and organisations use the books quite therapeutically, reading stories to children and young people to calm them down at the beginning of the session. Because we know when children and young people are stressed, books top up the executive function, your ability to think before acting and to strategise. Reading activates your parasympathetic nervous system, helping to calm you down. This enables people to be in a state to undertake therapeutic work.

The content of the books is also being used therapeutically. They might read a story about a child who has overwhelming feelings or is hungry, and they would talk about what was making that child angry. How could they respond? What are some of the things they could do to calm down? Although it's just a story and not directly relating to that child's experience, the book provides an opportunity to talk about issues.

The books and reading also had an impact on the waiting spaces. When people are waiting, it’s a time of tension, and stressful. Having something to do is a welcome distraction. Reading with their children is warm and loving, again topping up that executive function, and staff felt it calmed things down.

Fostering a school reading culture

Jo Buchan: How were the books accessed and used in Kingslea School?

Alex Woodley: Unfortunately, we weren't able to talk to the children and young people directly, but some of the staff were surprised at how enthusiastically the books were taken up. I think that is in large part due to the wide choice of books children and young people had. Staff talked about how they were able to have conversations with students about topics, what they enjoyed about the books and to recommend other books. The books were being swapped amongst the students. This is just gorgeous because the students were talking about the books to each other and seeding a community of readers.

Intergenerational impact

One beautiful story is about the intergenerational impact the project has had, which is profound and unexpected.

One of the staff at Kingslea accessed books for the young men who were also parents of very young children. She picked books with very few words, so it wasn't threatening to these men, some who lack confidence about reading aloud. But she was able to model and say you don't have to follow the words exactly. You can get the children to talk with the pictures and use wonderful voices for different characters. This supported the young men to read to and inspire a love of reading in their children. I'd also like to point out that many of the men hadn’t been read to themselves and thought it was cool this was something they could do with their tamariki.

Insights for seeding a community of readers

Jo Buchan: That's just magic. What have we learned from this project that would be useful to others who might be interested in seeding a community of readers?

Alex Woodley: There are lots of things we've learned. The first is the approach and how the project was framed. It’s about generosity. It's groups of people coming together, providing beautiful books to share and grow a love of reading. There's nothing medicinal about it. It's important it wasn't seen as a charity project. There's a beautiful quote from Kingslea, which was that ‘National Library was sharing their kaupapa and world with us’.

The curation of the books worked brilliantly. You have to be careful to avoid potentially triggering topics. No violence, no sexual violence. You want stories of hope and stories the children and young people can relate to. They sometimes have a lower reading age than their peers, but they still want to be able to get fantastic stories.

Having new books or books that look new is critically important for this population group, who often don't have a lot. A new book shows those children and young people they matter, that they're valued. We want you to have the book and it's a taonga, a treasure and it's yours. And you don't have to do anything except enjoy it.

The bookshelves were also surprisingly important. Having the books beautifully displayed meant they were more likely to be looked at and picked up.

I think it’s important to highlight the role of the National Library staff. Every interviewee talked about how responsive they had been. And the National Library facilitators were amazing. They listened carefully to the stakeholders, the social workers, the psychologists, the teaching staff and so on, and provided the right books to the right people at the right time to make sure the interests of the children and young people were met.

Reading role models

Jo Buchan: You’ve talked about how the adults have presented and talked about the books with the young people. Is this enabling role important or is it enough to give the books to the young people?

Alex Woodley: I think that's a really important point. The combination of beautiful, good quality books with adults who encourage children and young people to pick up the books and who talk about the books and share their love of reading, lights up enthusiasm. That combination is magical.

Challenges

Jo Buchan: So, what were some of the challenges?

Alex Woodley: COVID was a huge challenge, interrupting the project and probably the momentum. Another is that we and the people around the table are really busy. At the beginning, it was envisaged that the National Library would provide the backbone support for the project, and it would be collaborative. But it ended up more like a satellite system where the National Library contacted Kingslea and contacted Oranga Tamariki because getting together on a regular basis with their diaries was tricky.

The messaging around the project also matters. First, people need to know the books with Communities of Readers stickers are to take, keep and share. The messaging moves from ‘here are some free books’ to ‘here's something wonderful for helping build relationships with children in their care’, for example. We don't know whether the messaging got through to whānau because we didn't have contact with them directly. But it certainly did to schools, the social workers and the champions of the project.

Sustaining a reading community

Jo Buchan: Can you talk about the sustainability of the project as it draws to a close?

Alex Woodley: Everybody wants the project to continue as they can see the value. They talked about how layered and intergenerational the impacts have been. Interviewees would also like to see the good of this project extended beyond Canterbury as they see it as proof of concept that the project's made a difference. It’s sparked a real love of reading in at least some of those children and young people.

The project will transition as the National Library facilitators will continue to give some support. The National Library is providing a library of curated books for the social workers to share with caregivers and the children and young people. And it will also continue working with Kingslea supplying books into homes around the country.

And the Christchurch Public Library is going to take over parts of the project, including the supply of books to some residences and care homes.

Jo Buchan: Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?

Alex Woodley: Having champions in the organisations involved in the project is important. It means you've got somebody there holding the project in their bandwidth. It means they’ve put the project in front of other people in their organisation. It means the books are ordered when they start to run out and displays are kept fresh. That enthusiastic champion impacts other staff also.

Staff in the WINZ office realised they had beautiful books at home, and they bought more books to top up the collection, being mindful of the kaupapa of the project — new beautiful books, so scruffy books weren’t allowed.

The generosity unleashes generosity.

Jo Buchan: Thank you Alex for your time, insights and passion for this.

Read the report

Read the Canterbury Communities of Readers report