LIBRARIES Unlimited, the charity that runs Devon and Torbay’s libraries, has plans to develop an engaging new reading initiative for the county’s youngsters, and they need your help.

The charity has been named as one of three finalists in the Tesco Bags of Help Centenary Grant initiative, a community funding scheme that supports community groups and charities to deliver projects that have a positive impact on communities.

In celebration of Tesco’s Centenary, the supermarket has teamed up with Groundwork to deliver a special voting round which will see grants of £25,000, £15,000 and £10,000 awarded to community projects.

The library charity is calling on the people of Devon to support their vision to create an exciting new reading programme, working alongside schools, parents, carers and young people themselves.

Kate Mackenzie, Service Development Manager at Libraries Unlimited said: “We’re really excited to create a new reading activity that will make reading fun and rewarding for children over five years of age. Many library users might fondly think of Book Track or Book Quest, the reading schemes that have been operating in our libraries for many years.

“We want to breathe a new lease of life into these reading schemes to make something suitable for today’s children and encouraging them to read for pleasure.”

She continued: “As a charity, we’re committed to improving people’s lives and we know from research that reading for pleasure is more important for children’s cognitive development than their parents’ education and is a more powerful factor in life achievement than socio-economic background.

“We really hope people will be able to support us to make this happen by voting for us when they do their shopping in Tesco.”

Voting is open in all Tesco stores in Devon during October, November and December and customers will cast their vote using a token given to them at the check-out in store each time they shop.

Tesco’s Bags of Help project has already provided more than £75 million to more than 25,000 projects across Britain. Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups every time they shop. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions will be awarded funding.

Alec Brown, Head of Community at Tesco, said: “Bags of Help contributes funds to community projects up and down the country and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers voting in their local stores. We’re looking forward to seeing more projects brought to life.”