OUR CHARITIES We currently link particularly to the charities below. Sometimes we get asked to give books to other groups; to see more about where the books go have a look at our blog. 
First Story supports and inspires creativity, literacy and talent in UK schools and their communities. They arrange and pay for acclaimed authors to run creative writing workshops for students in 'challenging' secondary schools across the country. Each author leads weekly afterschool creative-writing workshops for up to sixteen students.At the end of the workshops, First Story publishes a professionally produced anthology for each school, and the schools host book-launch events at which the students read their stories aloud to friends, families and teachers.
In addition, they encourage schools to continue their publications independently of First Story and provide resources to help students and teachers build 'writing schools'. They aspire to develop First Story hubs in strategic locations across the country, which will ensure that every secondary school student has access to the creative provision to which First Story believe he/she is entitled.
From September 2010, they will have twenty-three residencies underway at schools in London, Oxford and Nottingham.
To hear how the books have been received at Maggie's Centres see our blog. The Maggie Keswick Jencks Cancer Caring Centres Trust was founded by Maggie Keswick Jencks in 1995 to provide support for people affected by cancer, their families, carers and friends to empower people to live with, through and beyond cancer.
Maggie's unique model of psychosocial support transforms the way that people live with cancer. They want everyone in the UK who is affected by cancer to have access to their high quality, evidence based psychological, emotional and information support. They are working to create a network of cancer caring centres across the UK to deliver their community based cancer support programme. 
To see how Age Concern is using the books see our blog. Age Concern Kensington & Chelsea is a local charity which provides a range of services to support older people to remain independent, as well as offering opportunities for people of all ages to get involved in volunteering. Their intergenerational project involves volunteers between the age of 16 and 25 as reading volunteers for visually impaired older people and as IT coaches for housebound older people. They are also able to offer a range of care services as well as providing information and advice that is tailored to older people in Kensington and Chelsea. 
Beanstalk is a national charity (formerly known as Volunteer Reading Help) that gives one-to-one literacy support to children in primary schools in the most deprived areas of England. Our vision is a nation of confident children who can read and grow up to lead successful lives. We aim to achieve this by working with primary schools to provide high quality literacy support through trained volunteer reading helpers who dedicate their time to give children a brighter future.Beanstalk reading helpers work with children on a one-to-one basis, giving them their full attention and support to improve reading levels, increase overall confidence and inspire a lifelong love of reading. Each Beanstalk reading helper works with three children and sees each child for two 30 minute sessions a week for a whole year. Beanstalk reading helpers are trained to recognise what challenges these children face and work through them. With access to a library of books and games at their local branch they can tailor their sessions best to support the children they work with. We have over 80 staff and more than 2,100 volunteers who carry out our work across England through 17 branches, with over 5000 children. Our aim is to reach out to 10,000 children by 2016.
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