Sharing Stories enabled parents and carers of children aged 3-5 years to engage with and critically assess the research around early brain and literacy development, to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the subject and to produce a practical resource to share their learning with other parents and carers.

Researchers from the Universities of Dundee and Edinburgh worked with Glasgow Libraries to design and deliver workshops and a focus group together with library staff and support workers. Academic partners were able to access on the ground information directly from families and compare this with their research.

The 22 families involved in the Sharing Stories project participated in 9 interactive workshops and 1 face to face focus group developed in partnership with researchers from the Universities of Dundee and Edinburgh and delivered by Glasgow Life family support staff. Through these workshops, families developed their own interpretation of research into early literacy development and other key child health and development milestones.

The project culminated with parents collaborating with the researchers, family support staff and animator to develop a digital learning resource to share their research and learning from the project with families across the city.

Parents involved reported improved communication with their children, a greater confidence in supporting their child’s literacy development, more interest in and understanding of early literacy and their children engaging more with stories and learning. One parent has even changed career path to work in Early Years, inspired by her experience in this project.

The project was a catalyst for the library service achieving funding from Connecting Scotland to loan laptops and dongles to families who did not have access to the internet.

Staff increased their knowledge of early literacy development and their confidence to do this in different ways.