Come to this LunchPlus on 14th February at 12:00pm – 1:30pm and hear how the love of stories, writing and creativity is helping to grow young people’s confidence, self-esteem and imagination.

Deborah Bullivant (Founding Director) will outline the development of the Charity, which grew out of a Yorkshire Forward funded project that investigated ‘what would make the biggest difference to children’s literacy’. The outcomes of this study (undertaken with the University of Sheffield) gave the structure and the philosophy on which the charity is based.

Whilst setting up the charity Deborah drew inspiration from American author Dave Eggers’, work in San Francisco, whose 826 model of a writing and mentoring centre for disadvantaged children (accessed through a shop for pirates) fed into the ideas. Consultation with families, children and young people followed and all of this led to the creation of Grimm & Co, a charity that can only be entered through a fantastical Apothecary to the Magical.

This is a fascinating case study of fusing creativity, education, young people in the foundational power of the imagination to regrow a town’s love of literacy, writing, reading and storytelling.