Children Today Charitable Trust has successfully completed its inspiring ‘Reading for Life’ project—an inclusive children’s reading initiative designed to raise awareness of disability and neurodiversity while celebrating diversity in all its forms.

Running from December 2024 to May 2025, the programme featured 12 interactive online storytelling sessions, led by a host of acclaimed authors and illustrators. Among them were Paralympic gold-medallist Danielle Brown MBE, children’s author Kate Foster, and Korky Paul, renowned for his illustrations in the Winnie the Witch series. Each session included a live reading and a Q&A, giving children the unique opportunity to engage directly with the authors.

Since its launch, the project has reached over 1,800 children from across Cheshire West—and even as far afield as the Netherlands. Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive, with many describing the sessions as “very inspiring” and “powerful in helping children see they’re not alone.”

To extend the project’s reach even further, Children Today donated 100 copies of the featured books to schools and individual families, ensuring the stories continued to spark conversations about inclusion and representation long after the live sessions ended.

Lexi Heselwood, communications manager at Children Today, reflected on the initiative’s success:

“We’re incredibly proud of what ‘Reading for Life’ has achieved. From welcoming renowned authors like Danielle Brown and Anne Alcott, to hearing children’s thoughtful, moving questions during the sessions—this project has sparked genuine change. It’s so important for children to see themselves reflected in the stories they read, and this project has helped make that possible.”

The sessions were presented by Cat Williams, confidence coach and founder of Building Your Confidence Ltd, whose enthusiasm and empathy helped bring each event to life.

“It was an absolute delight to host these events for Children Today,” says Cat. “Storytelling is such an important part of our everyday lives. The stories we tell ourselves and the stories others tell us, hugely affect how we think and behave and the confidence we have in ourselves.

“The storytelling in these sessions sparked some amazing questions from the children and it was fascinating and encouraging to see how the authors’ replies had the power to begin to change the children’s internal story about their own potential. You could see them already growing in confidence.”

The programme was made possible through a £5,000 grant from the Cheshire West Community Innovation Fund, as well as support from generous donors. Children Today also partnered with Cheshire Education Library Services, Cheshire Public Library Services, and Building Your Confidence Ltd to bring the events to life.

Reading for Life sessions are available to watch online at: www.youtube.com/@ChildrenTodayUK/videos