Dover Books For Change

Dover Books for change has two very exciting announcements. First of all we have an incredible new member joining us. Please give a big welcome to Charlie! We are so happy to have you onboard!

“Hi, I'm Charlie!

I'm super excited to be joining the Dover Books for Change team! My background is in theatre and performing arts and I currently work for a small charity that provides arts workshops for learning disabled, autistic and neurodivergent young people.

I am also a q***r performer and core team member at Dover Pride (you might have seen my 'Dover Pride Story Time' series where I used books donated by in the lead up to our last Pride event!)

I believe wholeheartedly in leading with kindness and that when there are diverse representations of all kinds of people in media and literature, we can learn to embrace and celebrate difference in a wonderful way. All too often, representations in literature are stuck in a binary form which can be damaging to any young person who doesn't 'fit in' to that box, damaging their view of themselves and of their world and the people in it. Im so glad that I get to play a part in helping to make a change in Dover!”

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On the 5th of January 9 books from the first round of donations were delivered to the subject lead for English, Matt Thomas, at Dover Grammar School for Girls. He was also provided with a guide for the books - age recommendations, a basic summary of the books and some ideas for where and how they could be utilised. I will be sending this out to all of the other schools that have received books.
It doesn’t end here, though. This is just the beginning. We need to get more books into more school. Please support, share and donate if you can.

Books for Change have achieved so much this year! Incredible work.

Thank you! To every single one of you who has supported us during our second year of Books For Change ❤️

During 2021...

We built on the success of the primary campaign and launched the secondary one - we ran a successful crowdfunder for the six secondary schools in the Folkestone&Hythe district. These book boxes focusing on consent and healthy relationships, will be in schools early 2022.

We secured funding for and hand built our first ever little free library, to date 19 free books have been taken to their new homes by children from East Folkestone. The library is a permanent feature and will continue to be refilled, throughout 2022 and beyond.

We devised and delivered children's anti racism workshops for two Turner Trust Schools, with a reach of over 250 young people plus staff.

We devised and delivered our first LGBTQIA+ inclusion workshop for one Turner Trust School, with a reach of 160 young people plus staff.

We ran our first "in the community" anti racism workshop for families, with a reach of 40 people in attendance. Together we created a window display of anti racism messages for all to see.

Working with young Black children from one Turner School we created a Black History Month display, and provided new titles written by Black authors for the school to keep and use throughout the year. The display remains in place, and will remain so, 365 days of the year.

We were invited to partner with Inclusion Labs www.inclusionlabs.co.uk and spoke as a panelist, on an important zoom call with global law firm Link Laters.

We were invited and paid to speak as a panelist on various KCC zoom calls linked to the library and diverse literature. We are working with the library's into 2022, to help ensure diverse and inclusive books are available to all.

We worked as a facilitator at our local community garden bringing diverse stories, puppetry, crafting, making, thinking, activism and most of all change. We brought hope, and empowered hundreds of young people this year to believe in thier ideas and most of all themselves.

The future looks bright as our Co Founder Emily has been appointed as Diversity and Inclusion Lead (part time) for Turner Schools Trust. Working across five schools, both primary and secondary, to embed the work further, not only with the young people, but with staff, governers and trustees.

The rest of the week Emily will be working to secure funding - Books For Change CIC as well as publishing her very own children's book! Rest assured she will also be walking, resting, reading and prioritising self care.

We are beyond thrilled to have seen so many of our followers buying new diverse literature, starting the conversation of how to work towards becoming an anti racist human, or embedding the work further with young people, friends, co workers and family.

This year we have received countless messages of kindness that outweigh the negative ones. We could not continue the work without you supporting us in this way. From the bottom of our hearts, Thank you ❤️

We are almost ready to welcome 2022.

Hello to a New Year.

Please go steady.

Information about workshops run by Books for Chabge and resources for teachers to use. Please have a look.

The library at our school has a dedicated Books for Change section and the headteacher, Lee Kane, ordered loads of books for us to fill it up with. Some of the books are pictured. We hope other schools follow suit. We also need to continue fundraising to ensure schools have a selection of books that promote kindness, discuss consent, misogyny, feminism, gender, equality, diversity, inclusion and many more important issues. Please donate if you are able to or share our campaign.
(First picture shows full shelves of books with Books for Change signs, followed by some of the books on the shelves - ‘How to Change it Make a Difference’ by Joshua Virasami, ‘Of Wom=n’ by Shami Chakrabati, ‘All boys aren’t blue’ by George M Johnson, ‘Brit(ish)’ by Afua Hirsch, ‘Empireland’ by Sathnam Sanghera, ‘Rise up’ by Stormzy and Jude Yawson, ‘A change is gonna come’ by a variety of authors, ‘The state of Grace’ by Rachel Lucas and ‘Wake - the hidden history of women led slave revolts’ by Rebecca Hall)
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This is so important. Please read and think about your response. Little Amal will be in Dover at 6pm this evening at Pencester Gardens.

Yesterday hundreds and hundreds of families welcomed Little Amal The Walk to Folkestone. The singing was heartbreakingly beautiful and the atmosphere one of hope, joy and love.

The question now:

What happened afterwards? Did your children ask you what it was all about? Did you tell them beforehand that Amal symbolises refugee children? What is a refugee, and what does it all mean? Why is all this important? What can you do as parents/educators/teachers?

If we don't have these conversations with children they will grow up:

A) Not knowing. Which can lead them to piecing together information from external factors within society, like the media or subliminal government messages, or other adults who don't have the knowledge themselves, and who shut down conversation on difficult subject matter, because they are either afraid, or simply wish to live in a bubble of 'love and light'

All of the above can lead to fear, which can lead to racism.

Or

B) Knowing bits but not the whole story. Which can lead to confusion, which can lead to shutting down and promising yourself you "will tackle this one later" leave it another year or two, let them enjoy unicorns for a bit longer, what's the rush? (I love a sparkly unicorn btw and so do my kids)

"I'm a good person and I know this is something I need to do, but just not right now" (when this feeling creeps in be sure to check yourself)

Sweeping difficult subject matter with children under the carpet, even when you are a "good person" can lead to racism.

Here are some book suggestions to help start you and your family talking about refugees.

*A parent has already contacted us this morning to borrow these. Check your local library. Check your local indie book store, and wherever possible don't buy them on Amazon.

*Every Primary school in Folkestone was gifted The Journey by Francesca Sanna. Why not ask your school how they are using this book in the classroom? Start the conversation...



Donate to: Choose Love and Kent Refugee Action Network (KRAN)

Here’s the subject leader for English at Dover Grammar School for Boys who kindly came to collect their books on Friday. It’s brilliant to know these books are now being used in schools.
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I’ve been meaning to post this for a while but here’s a picture of the Headteacher at Astor Secondary School - Lee Kane, with some of the books donated through the Books for Change campaign. Lee has been wonderfully supportive of the campaign and has ensured there is a dedicated section of the school library for the books (and bought lots more to add to it!). He is also setting up an office and safe space for the Books for Change and LGBTQ+ groups to have somewhere for students to go to have a chat with a member of staff or other students. He is going to ensure books are also available in this space to spark conversations and for students to read and borrow. The Head of English has also been super supportive and is doing so much to diversify the English curriculum too. We have loads more ideas for the coming year so watch this space…
(Pictures shows Lee - with a smile on his face - holding some of the donated books)
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We will not stop fighting for women’s rights, women’s safety, and women’s existence in this world.

Misogyny is real. Male violence is a global catastrophe for women and girls.

Say her name, learn about her life. Women are not just another stat or headline.