Family stories

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Latest

Storybook Dads receives donation from Libraries Unlimited

Chief Executive of Libraries Unlimited, Ciara Eastell OBE and Vice Chair of the Board of trustees, David Lockwood, visited our HQ to present us with the cheque and have a tour of our editing suite.

BBC Stories: How we helped Lewis to stay connected to his family

"Lewis was struggling in prison, feeling isolated from his young family and increasingly "cold". Then he was shown a way of doing something that many parents take for granted - reading to his children - and everything began to change...."

BBC Outlook: How prison inmates can read to their kids

Interview with CEO Sharon Berry and ex-prisoners and families for BBC World Service. First broadcast on 20th March 2019. Duration: 10 minutes

Our story

Storybook Dads is a multi-award winning charity, well-known and respected in the prison estate...but back in 2002 it was a very different story! Click here to find out more about our humble beginnings.

Volunteer

"I think Storybook Dads staff probably see the best side of prisoners as most Dads love and miss their children very much."

Where we work

The scheme runs in approximately 100 prisons in the UK, including women’s prisons and youth offender institutes. Click here to find out which prisons we are currently working with

Story CDs and DVDs

By sending a story disc to their children, parents can bring comfort to their children and share the joy of storytelling from behind bars. Parents in prison record a bedtime story and message for their child on CD or DVD. Our friendly team are there to help less confident readers and the editing process means that even non-readers can take part.

Sharon's Story

Awards

We are incredibly proud that our innovative work has been recognised and has earned us a number of prestigious awards over the years.

Training/Work Experience

Recordings from prisons all over the UK are sent to our headquarters and main production centre at HMP Channings Wood in Devon. Our sixteen prisoner editors are trained to use industry standard audio / video software to make the stories into extra special gifts for the children.

Annual reviews

Read about the impact of our work in our Annual Reviews.

Workshops

We help prisoners to make other educational and fun gifts such as memory books, calendars, challenge charts and pop-up books. A lot of work and creativity goes into these activities and the children love their personalised gifts. Some of these activities are ideal for older children.