After working with a local primary school I found out about funding through Isle of Wight Council’s Adult Community Learning to deliver learning in the community. It only applies to adults 19+ age, focusing on some of the more disadvantaged groups.
I was pleased to gain funding to become one of their community learning providers and so Beachy Community Book Publishing was born…
Through this blog I will be documenting my first experiences teaching and delivering these (and new) community book projects and give more detail on the books created.
I’m going to try and blog as I go this year!
But for now a summary…I worked with the following groups last year:
Cranstoun | DnR Room – Cranstoun are a national organisation supporting people affected by drugs and alcohol. A group within Cranstoun, created entirely by a service user called Jay ‘Jmo’ Jamiseon, along with other volunteers, created a room (all while we were delivering our book project in another room at Cranstoun) called DnR – (Discova ‘n’ Recova) to provide a space at Cranstoun for users to create music and get involved in other creative projects. They are now a “music based recovery” charity in their own right and this community book was their first project. Their book was a book of personal, heartbreaking and emotive experiences of drugs and alcohol. The book is called Addicts Anecdotes.
Bodster Equine Assisted Learning CIC – An organisation run by Jo and Giles Boddington, both experienced teachers and experts in natural horsemanship, who run courses for children and adults in the community where they help them learn how to work with ponies on the ground through natural horsemanship techniques. I worked with a group of learners on their “Never Too Old” project to encourage over 50 learners. Their book documented their experiences working with the ponies and personal reflections. It’s also a great showcase of what Bodster do. Their book is called “Never Too Old”.
Southern Advocacy Services – A charity providing advocacy help to vulnerable people in the South and Isle of Wight. I worked with their advocates and clients (some with learning and physical difficulties through advocate help) to help them put together a book they had wanted to create filled with personal stories of advocacy and personal accounts from those they help.
An eBook autobiography – I am also working with a young person with cerebral palsy and some other learning difficulties, who volunteers at Bodster CIC, on a special one-to-one project helping her create an autobiography of her experiences in school and life as a young person with a disability to inspire other young people. It’s great to work one-to-one as there is the time to work on more writing, editing, and craft techniques. The project is on-going and we hope to publish the book as an eBook to raise funds to help others.
Phew!