Beyond Words Book Club Training

Beyond Words Book Clubs are places people who communicate differently, including people with learning disabilities, can get together to have fun, make friends and tell stories together. People read books from the word-free picture story series Books Beyond Words by describing what they see on the pages together, building their own unique story. They offer a sense of community and friendship, as well as understanding.

Following a generous National Lottery Community Fund grant and addtional additional funding from Baily Thomas, we’ve created these training sessions for people who want to create a Book Club near them, as part of our Book Club in a Box project. This project aims to work with community groups, libraries, charities and others to establish more than 300 new Book Clubs across England.

Individuals who receive our training to become part of the Beyond Words Book Club Network commit to setting up a book club at their organisation or local library/community space.

During this session we will show you:

• How you can start a book club
• How you can use our books and images to improve the mental and physical health of people with learning disabilities and autism
• How you can help people to make friends and have fun through book clubs
• How our books can be used in education, social care and health care with young people and adults with learning disabilities
• How you can be aware of/alert to safeguarding issues with the group

After this free training session, you will become part of the Beyond Words Book Club Network with access to free resources, ongoing support and everything you need to run your own Book Club.

This session will be delivered alongside our co-trainers, all of whom have a learning disability. We actively promote and welcome the registration of individuals with learning disabilities to participate in our Book Club training sessions.

We encourage you to contact us if you are interested in attending one of our Book Club training sessions but there are barriers preventing you from doing so.

Have any questions about our Book Clubs or training sessions? Contact us at admin@booksbeyondwords.co.uk or visit our website: www.booksbeyondwords.co.uk