10 Stories to Make a Difference with Pop Up Projects

Pop Up Projects has invested £2m in children’s literature over the last ten years: they’ve spent £270,000 providing 57,000 books to schools and over £750,000 commissioning 7,000 hours of author-led classroom workshops, inspiring and motivating over 90,000 children and young people in disadvantaged and underserved communities – 10% with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) – to become passionate readers and creative writers. They’ve also spent £1million developing literary talent from under-represented backgrounds. 

It’s their 10th Birthday in January 2021 and they’re raising funds to publish 10 Stories to Make a Difference, a collection of new illustrated stories, poems and picture books celebrating the theme of ‘difference,’ by emerging (unpublished) and established authors. With award-winning contributors including former Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell, David Roberts, Alexis Deacon, Jane Ray, Jamila Gavin, Marcus Sedgwick, Philip Ardagh, Sita Brahmachari and Laura Dockrill, 10 Stories will kickstart the publishing careers of the ten talented debut under 26-years, authors of colour and LGBTQ+  writers and illustrators. If successful, they will publish 10 Stories annually, bringing new voices to the attention of publishers and the public alike. 

Pop Up need to raise £40,000 by 21st December and really need your help to achieve this. We hope you will consider making a pledge (whatever you can afford), sharing this fundraiser with colleagues and friends, and promoting our 10 Stories Crowdfunder in your newsletter and on social media using https://bit.ly/33e3t5m. Money raised through this campaign will fund the 10 Stories production and commissioning costs, while sales from the 10,000 books printed will support our charitable work with schools, communities and diverse writers and illustrators. 

Pop Up’s work is at risk. As a non-profit, their mission is to transform lives through literature. But  like everyone in the cultural sector they’ve been badly hit by Covid-19, not just financially – losing £200,000 in income this year – but in terms of its terrible impact on the people they support. 

Investment in Pop Up’s 10 Stories will make a vital contribution to the literary ecology, and to vulnerable children and young people in the Covid-19 recovery era.