Forum Topic

Read with children!

Do you remember a character from a childhood book as fondly as an old friend?If you do, you’ll know the magic of being able to slip into another world as and when you need to, or how books can make your world a bigger, brighter place.For bookworms especially, it’s hard to believe that anyone could see reading as anything other than empowering, or even just a pleasure. For the third of children from disadvantaged areas who leave primary school without being able to read well, often it’s nothing but a chore.That’s why we like to turn up on the doorstep, with a backpack of books, two little stools, and a pair of volunteers who know that words take you places. Every week, come rain or shine, our volunteers bring the magic of reading directly into families’ homes every week, in low-income areas across London.Doorstep Library volunteers don’t just read stories; they do the silly voices, handpick the books, and give special recommendations. By making it fun first, we get to watch children transform into budding readers. We love when parents get stuck in with the sessions too and encourage them to get involved in their children’s education.Sometimes though, we’re just there to give a bit of extra support, whether we’re passing on info about a family activity, lending an ear, or even just being a friendly face. Then, before we go, we leave behind a selection of books for each child to borrow for the week.If this sounds like the role for you, these are the basics. We run projects on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons in estates across Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham and Lambeth.In Hammersmith and Fulham, Monday and Tuesday projects start at 3.45pm and finish at 6.30pm, and Thursday projects start at 4.30pm and finishing at 7.00pm.If you'd like to know more contact Daniela Cardoso at volunteer@doorsteplibrary.org.uk

Daniela Cardoso ● 2384d16 Comments

I am becoming increasingly bored at banging my head against a (very thick) brick wall.I am delighted that it is Tory policy both to reduce the size of state involvement (in many cases by simply reversing the non-jobs created by Bliar and Brown which gave false hope to those in whose areas they were created simply to garner votes) and to remove the obligation to provide anything other than essential services as they always did.There is an increasing dependence on 'the state' to provide services which the majority could and should provide for themselves.  Society will provide a safety-net it is not there to hold your hand and wipe your nose from cradle to grave.Equally, anyone with a modicum of inquisitiveness would ask how Ealing, given its constant bleating, either directly or through those misguided enough support them, about "Tory cuts' still delivers the core front line services while, at the same time, significantly increasing its reserves.  Does this not, to any sensible person, point to over-manning and profligacy in earlier years?  Is you memory too short or jaded to recall the successive years of double-digit Council Tax increases under Labour to deliver little, if any improvement. As example, the millions of pounds wasted on Response 24/7 the 'citizens call centre' which was partially built and staffed without a single piece of empiric evidence that it was needed.You have not directly condoned selling off libraries, your support for the Philistines is not that overt. You have however, in a number of posts supported volunteer-led operations, which are the thin end of a service-withdrawal 'wedge'. I would counsel you to read the Books and Bookmen columns in Private Eye (you could have done this in the old Central Library before your 'beloveds' withdrew the service) to see how frequently the volunteer-led operations fail.Your penultimate point however is valid. If only some local politicians thought the same rather than staying on-message with 'The Dear Leader' to keep themselves in a position to draw their £1.1 Million in allowances!

N V Brooks ● 2364d

No.  It is Tory policy to reduce the size of state involvement.  As I understand it Councils are not under an obligation to provide all those services that we have enjoyed the past.  If we want them we have to use them and fight for them or we lose them.  I too have enjoyed the historical section and articles about local history but people move around more and their lives are more concerned now with day to day survival.  Where have I condoned the selling off of the libraries?  I haven't.  It is a shame that we don't have a better and fairer political system with more independent councillors and politicians and less party political involvement in local government.  The focus seems too often to be on party political ping-pong and hanging onto power.Just take a look at the child poverty figures for the different areas of this country.  A supposedly First World country.

Philippa Bond ● 2364d

Tory cuts.My views should be self-evident to anyone who has read my postsI enjoy local history and used to regularly use the Central Reference Library which due to cruel and unnecessary idealogical LABOUR cuts is now a poor apology for a reference source.  But still you defend the Philistines. Hang your head in shame.

N V Brooks ● 2365d

I haven't forgotten my observations and suggestions but where are everybody else's?  Where are yours Nigel?I don't happen to currently use a library but that does not mean that there isn't the possibility that I'll want to in future - if there still are any - and if they offer more than just books.And no I'm not going to let you try and re-write history and forget these cruel and unnecessary idealogical Tory cuts.

Philippa Bond ● 2365d

"Why on earth should I answer your questions? "Says it all, the expected response of an empty vessel making a lot of noise without an iota of substance.I put your inability and unwillingness down to Tory cuts of course."Reading and writing is very important as so many opportunities in life are otherwise reduced or denied but how do we make it easier for parents to prioritise this?"By making libraries community hubs as has happened in many areas. You yourself have already, in threads passim, listed the types of activity that libraries could host. Doubtless you have forgotten these posts as you flit from one bleat about 'Tory cuts' to another.Of course, expansion of our library service needs commitment by the local authority that owns the valuable resource, something that will never happen while Abimelech and the rest of your beloved pack of Philistines are in office.Anyone supporting this bunch of self-serving materialists should be soundly ashamed.

N V Brooks ● 2366d

Why on earth should I answer your questions?  Time does not stand still and fewer people use the libraries in the way that they used to.  Many read books online if they read at all.  Many buy books rather than visit a library to borrow books.  So libraries need to change with the times and make the most of all the other uses that can be made of them particularly relating to books and just one of those very important uses could be helping and encouraging children to read books.  Reading and writing is very important as so many opportunities in life are otherwise reduced or denied but how do we make it easier for parents to prioritise this?This afternoon my great-niece will be going to a library run by volunteers to see a puppet show.  This is in another part of the UK where this has already happened.  I don't know any more about how that library has changed but will of course be asking.

Philippa Bond ● 2366d

I just don’t understand how a supposedly ‘socialist’ council is happy to undermine essential services - and blame it on someone else - while happily lining their own pockets.This is a Labour Council in name only. Private enterprise is its answer for the library service. Take Northfields for example. Any group operating that under the community managed scheme needs to stump up around £100k a year. So where is that cash going to be found? Not from my pocket because I already pay Council Tax for such services, not to provide an income for indolent and uninterested councillors.It’s a fallacy to claim councillors must be remunerated for being elected. These people had incomes before being councillors and they will need incomes when they lose their seats. The £10,000 each a year they get as allowances is a perk of the job. Many of them still maintain their incomes from outside the council. That goes for all political parties.If these people want to be full-time politicians then they should be more accountable. At the moment they do as they please and dress it up with spin and obfuscation.

Simon Hayes ● 2366d

You would make a great politician.Duck and swerve the issue and never answer a question directly.Try it sometime, you may find it cathartic!So, "you would hope that Ealing does this helped by those residents who are aware of good and successful initiatives."This would imply that you support the Philistines in their withdrawal of an essential service which directly contradicts your earlier posts.  Sounding more like a politician with every post.

N V Brooks ● 2367d

Don't Councillors nationwide get some remuneration?  Do we really want a situation where only the really really rich can stand as Councillors and make decisions on our behalf?  I understand that teenagers listen to youngsters reading in Wandsworth and therapy dogs are also involved.  What initiatives does Ealing have?

Philippa Bond ● 2367d

No level playing field.  It is always interesting to see what other boroughs are doing of course and you would hope that Ealing does this helped by those residents who are aware of good and successful initiatives.  Where does Hillingdon stand in the child poverty or food bank use statistics?  These have been increasing as the rich get richer under this Govt.It isn't that long since Tory flagship borough Wandsworth complained to the Govt that they were struggling.

Philippa Bond ● 2367d

Time and time again you simply swerve the issue that Hillingdon (which is subject to the same budget cuts) is managing to maintain and, in many cases, expand services at all SEVENTEEN borough libraries.Ah, but I can hear the bleat, they are a nasty Tory council.So i would counsel you to look at Hounslow (about as far from a Tory council as you could get) who are maintaining and expanding their library services.So yes Ms.Bond, you CAN blame it on individual councils especially those with blinkered bleating supporters who, like their beloved council, blame it all on someone else.

N V Brooks ● 2367d

Not when they are lining their own pockets - Bell, Sabiers and many others earn their crust from our tax. If they were competent it would be excusable but they are not.Bell still has his A2Dominion home although the elderly relative he ‘needed it’ for would be 99 years old by now!

Simon Hayes ● 2367d

The attack on local authority services over the last ten years has led to problems with social services, libraries and other services all over the country so it is a bit rich to blame it on specific councils.

Philippa Bond ● 2367d

Nice of your Labour chums to press on with smashing our library service then.I note Cllr Driscoll was ‘substituted’ at last Thursday’s scrutiny Committee meeting. Perhaps he didn’t want to be seen to support the policy which will destroy the library in Northfields ward, even though he’s clearly in favour of the strategy.I hope residents will remember his, and Councillor Blick’s hypocrisy when it comes to the next local election.

Simon Hayes ● 2367d

It is incredibly important to read and speak and listen to very young children to increase their vocabulary and understanding.  So many are now starting school unable to follow instructions and unable to express themselves without violence as they don't have the vocabulary and practice in explaining their feelings and actions.As a grandparent I was horrified to hear that without this early input children may never catch up with their peers let alone the bigger problems it can cause at school and to the rest of society. 

Philippa Bond ● 2368d

Nothing in Ealing then?Have you posted on the Hammersmith forum?

N V Brooks ● 2384d