The Bookery’s superstar volunteer Tilly reports on the success of our recent crowdfunder, held in conjunction with Marcus Rashford and Macmillan Publishing.

Part of The Bookery’s mission is to enable access to books and cultural opportunities regardless of income or other barriers. We identified Marcus Rashford’s latest book as a positive and inspiring guide for life, showing our young people how to be the best they can be. The past 18 months have raised huge challenges and children in poverty have been among the worst affected. More than a third of all children are living in poverty in some parts of Devon.

Thanks to our successful Crowdfunder in September of this year, we got this positive and inspiring guide into the hands of over 400 young people in our locality.

Organisations who received the books included:

The Amber Foundation – an independent charity that supports homeless and unemployed young people to turn their lives around.

The Atkinson Secure Children’s Home – providing full residential care, healthcare and education to young people aged 10-17 years and accommodated under section 25 of the Children Act 1989.

The Rees Foundation – a charity registered in England and Wales 1154019 founded by Jan Rees OBE in 2013. A foster carer herself, Jan has devoted over 40 years of her life to the care of children and young people in the UK.  Jan’s vision is that people leaving care have support networks in place, and they are not left alone to tackle life’s challenges.

Wynstream School (part of Exeter Children’s Federation) – a school where pupils of all abilities can challenge themselves and work collaboratively whilst developing their own interests and strengths. Their pupils experience and appreciate the richness of their own localities as they learn to contribute enthusiastically and responsibly to their own communities.

The Beacon Centre (Isca Community Enterprises charity) – meeting the needs of vulnerable, isolated or socially isolated residents of Beacon Heath and Whipton.  Their aim is to bring people together to improve lives, have fun things to do and increase opportunities to learn new things. These books will be used for the newly launching youth groups in 2022.

Crediton Food Bank – provides emergency food for local people in crisis in Crediton and the surrounding villages. It also offers people support such as financial advice, referring and signposting to other agencies, including counselling, and works closely with all agencies in the area including schools.

The remaining books have been distributed among various schools in Devon.

We are delighted to hear of the positive impact so far, here are some of the comments:

“Huge thanks to the lovely people at The Bookery in Crediton for donating some copies of Marcus Rashford’s fabulous new book ‘You are a Champion’ following the shops first ever Crowdfunder. The books will be available to the young people at Amber to help them recover from complex challenges like long term unemployment, mental ill health and addiction.” 

“A massive shout out to The Bookery in Crediton who have kindly donated 100 copies of Marcus Rashford’s new book ‘You are a Champion’. The Rees Foundation are currently running workshops for care experienced people in custody and we’ll be taking some copies with us to these sessions! Thanks so much!”

If you are one of the organisations who received books from us, we would love to hear how you are getting on. Please tag us @thebookeryhq.

And finally, we couldn’t have done it without our amazing supporters, so thank YOU!