#ReadingDad (The Superpower Of Books)
The #ReadingDad campaign is an important call. Today in many countries, boys and men read far less than girls and women. The annual research of National Library shows that the problem involves Poland too. Certainly one of the reasons is the lack of a male reading role model – we want to change this.
We encourage Dads, Uncles, Grandfathers, Big Brothers, Guardians, Coaches to start reading!
We started our campaign on World Book Day, April 23rd 2023. It has it’s culmination on Father’s Day, wich in Poland means June 23rd.
This project was created in cooperation with over 30 publishers, distributors, booksellers, but also librarians, local governments, institutions and companies. Some of well-known, popular dads in Poland, including a musician, blogger, influencer and even a sportsman, became ambassadors of the campaign. We managed to engage people from various environments and encourage them to support us!
The most important part in encouraging men to read in the context of our project was publishing a handbook, written by Maria Deskur, CEO of URF and Edyta Plich, CEO of EDICO Foundation, “The Superpower Of Books – Reading Dad”, which is still avaliable to download for free. You can find it on our website: Reading Dad, created as a part of our campaign. That was our third publication as a part of The Superpower of Books series (we’ve previously published “The Superpower of Books. A Handbook for Promoting Reading” and its continuation – “The Superpower of Books in Preschools”).
The Reading Dad campaign invloved Social Media platforms. We received a strong interest amongst a great group of supporters – users, bloggers, influencers and children literature publishers. The total number of views of campaign content reached over 5,000,000. What’s more we reached almost 2,000 publications with hashtag #TataTeżCzyta (ang. Reading Dad) posted by our followers and other users. 30,000 paper copies of our handbook were distributed to Polish families across the country.
A crucial part of the campaign was the activities undertaken by librarians and teachers. We shared packages of promotional materials and educational aids – lesson scenarios, posters, bookmarks and printable gadgets. Engaging libraries, schools and kindergartens allows us to reach fathers and guardians directly.
Reading should be inclusive, but that requires inviting people who don’t read to be the part of book culutre. The Reading Dad project has hepled breaking away some sort of stereotypes about readers (and non-readers) and shown that books can be (and should be!) for everyone. This means including into the reading community those who have not felt invited enough so far.
The campaign helped to create role models, positive behaviours and habits by promoting a daily reading routine, which is a crucial point in increasing level of reading in Poland.
The real change requires long-term work, which is why we want to continue our Reading Dad campaign in 2024.
