Our Social Enterprise couldn’t work without customers and generous supporters. Thanks to you, we’ve been able to distribute wonderful new books through foodbanks and charities. Here is a taste of what we’ve done in 2020 . . .
East Sussex Foster Care Association
ESFCA is a local, independent charity which supports foster carers, their families, and children placed in care by the local authority.
Prospero’s Project donated 400 cookbooks to contribute to Christmas hampers for 200 older Looked After Children and young adults, mostly 16-21 year olds, who are transitioning to independent living.
Packing up the hampers was a big operation, involving all the office team at ESFCA. We heard lovely feedback that the cookbooks will help young people begin exploring the delight of cooking, as well as provide a useful tool for Social Workers to discuss nutrition and health.
Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group
Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group is a registered charity which works to improve the welfare and well-being of people held in detention, by offering friendship and support and advocating for fair treatment.
Prospero’s Project donated a range of books to the library at Brook House, one of the detention facilities at Gatwick. The library offers a lifeline for people stuck in cells but, due to Covid, it is currently closed. However the education and art teams at the centre are using the books to support creative and educative projects.
Anna Pincus, the director of GDWG, said “it is a great boost for the library to be better stocked. There is a lot of self-harm and food refusal in the Centre and people are desperate, so it is a lifeline for people in detention to go to the library from their cells.”
We were also glad to support the 30 people who are supported by GDWG while no longer in detention, but living lives of severe hardship and destitution.
Anna said, “the people we work with don't have the basics, let alone gifts! Receiving a book from an act of kindness to a stranger will be incredibly heartening for them and that's even before they enjoy the book - the look, the feel, the content, the company, the outside world it will bring to their lives.
The Buddy Refugee Project Hastings
The Buddy Refugee Project coordinates people from Hastings, St Leonards, Bexhill and Wealden to offer help of various kinds to Syrian families settling in the community through the Syrian Resettlement Project.
Prospero’s Project donated a range of books and activity books for children and adults supported by the Project, and to contribute to the community-cafe and exhibition space that the Project hopes to reopen once lockdowns ease.
Eastbourne, Newhaven, and Hailsham Foodbanks
Prospero’s Project continues to support foodbanks in our area. At a time when Covid has only heightened the need for foodbanks, we are glad to donate books for children and adults. This December, we donated around 500 books across a range of ages and genres which Eastbourne, Hailsham, and Newhaven foodbanks are distributing alongside Christmas food parcels.
Stef Lake, the foodbank coordinator at Newhaven, wrote that “we are currently providing food and essential items to over a hundred families in crisis each week and the majority have children – we know that these families are statistically less likely to have access to books at home, so to be able to include this in our provision is a real game changer.
Chyngton School, Year 2 Class
We were happy to work with Claire Guy, a teacher of a Year 2 Class at Chyngton School. Claire approached us hoping to buy a book for each member of her class - some of whom did not own a book before. We were glad to be approached and, through Prospero’s Project, were able to donate books for each pupil. Claire shared some of the warming feedback from parents with us: “thank you so much. Ro was over the moon with his book. The sort of gift and memory a child and person treasures forever” and “thank you so much. This means a lot especially since we do not have much around the tree.”
