Wow, that didn't take long..... Let's start with a quick look back at what we did in 2013...
At the end of April we held our first Open Day. We had our first BBC tv spot. Our first BBC Newcastle interview.
We took part in Gateshead Volunteers month, attending festivals in Saltwell Park, Birtley and Teams. We had at least 4 mass-volunteering days where we accomplished large amounts of work and pretty much cleared up the backlog.
In June we took part in a pilot project at Broadacre House with Northern Creative Solutions.
In December we put book-collection boxes at Seven Stories and Gateshead Civic Centre.
The Score:
Seven Stories: 19 Civic Centre 180
We also once again received items of clothing from Giving World Online
These were distributed to various women's refuges, The Comfrey Project, Panah, Crisis and other local groups. - We do encourage you to sign up with Giving World, they always have interesting things on offer and if we group the orders together we can save a lot on transport costs.
We also received some wonderful donations of books from North Shields and Wallsend libraries - many many thanks to them. It is wonderful to have this support from people who value books the way we do. Many of the library workers were also delighted that their books would go on to have another lease of life, rather than sending them to the knacker's yard and getting pulped.
During 2013 we gave away approx 5183 books, plus DVDs, clothes, oracles, card decks and other goodies.
Looking forward, during 2014 we hope to open a multi-lingual library in Newcastle City centre, start up at least 3 more Borderline BookSpaces in Durham, Carlisle and .... fill in your local town.
We are already working on more active outreach to stop people complaining that they've never heard of us...
We plan to take part in Gateshead Volunteers Month in June again, remembering that the third week of June is also Refugee Week, so we may be able to hold some special events that week in Team Valley.
Also we would like to offer some extras to women's refuges - perhaps 'pamper days' where we can visit the refuges with people who do hair, nails, reiki.... whatever people have to offer and the women will enjoy. Of course we would also take quantities of books to let the women choose for themselves what they'd like to read.
So it's wide open - bring your own ideas, let us know what you can offer. All our contact details are on our website.
At the end of April we held our first Open Day. We had our first BBC tv spot. Our first BBC Newcastle interview.
We took part in Gateshead Volunteers month, attending festivals in Saltwell Park, Birtley and Teams. We had at least 4 mass-volunteering days where we accomplished large amounts of work and pretty much cleared up the backlog.
In June we took part in a pilot project at Broadacre House with Northern Creative Solutions.
In December we put book-collection boxes at Seven Stories and Gateshead Civic Centre.
The Score:
Seven Stories: 19 Civic Centre 180
We also once again received items of clothing from Giving World Online
These were distributed to various women's refuges, The Comfrey Project, Panah, Crisis and other local groups. - We do encourage you to sign up with Giving World, they always have interesting things on offer and if we group the orders together we can save a lot on transport costs.
We also received some wonderful donations of books from North Shields and Wallsend libraries - many many thanks to them. It is wonderful to have this support from people who value books the way we do. Many of the library workers were also delighted that their books would go on to have another lease of life, rather than sending them to the knacker's yard and getting pulped.
During 2013 we gave away approx 5183 books, plus DVDs, clothes, oracles, card decks and other goodies.
We are already working on more active outreach to stop people complaining that they've never heard of us...
We plan to take part in Gateshead Volunteers Month in June again, remembering that the third week of June is also Refugee Week, so we may be able to hold some special events that week in Team Valley.
Also we would like to offer some extras to women's refuges - perhaps 'pamper days' where we can visit the refuges with people who do hair, nails, reiki.... whatever people have to offer and the women will enjoy. Of course we would also take quantities of books to let the women choose for themselves what they'd like to read.
So it's wide open - bring your own ideas, let us know what you can offer. All our contact details are on our website.
