It is estimated that each year in England and Wales there are up to 310,000 children with a parent in prison, with around 17,000 of these children affected by maternal imprisonment. Research shows that children of prisoners are at risk of significantly worse outcomes than those not affected by parental imprisonment.

The ‘Share a Story’ programme uses regular gifts of carefully chosen beautiful new books to bridge the gap between a child and their parent in prison. The programme was developed in conjunction with family liaison teams at HMP Doncaster, HMP Dovegate and HMP Lowdham Grange and seeks to provide every prisoner with the means to connect and build bridges with the children in their family through the powerful medium of stories, illustrations, and imagination.

These books will be the only item a parent can send their child while they are in prison, so they can have an elevated importance and impact when received as a gift. The Children’s Book Project has a number of creative book gifting mechanics available as part of the programme which provide an opportunity to tailor the offer to suit each prison.

This grant will source and distribute 25,600 books to circa 5,120 children during the year and have the following positive impacts:
• Help children to know they are being regularly thought of, to help raise self-esteem
• Provide opportunities to discuss, understand and develop shared interests
• Help to forge connections between family members (even at a distance) and offer a natural vehicle to continue conversations
• Increase a child’s access to high quality, relevant and interesting reading material and promote reading for pleasure.

Research show that reoffending is reduced substantially if family ties are maintained, providing longer term benefits for families and society.