| Programme name | Country | Date of information |
| BookStart Madeira | Portugal | 21 Sept 2022 |
| Question | Answer |
| About the Organisation | |
| Organisation name | Madeira Archives and Library Department |
| Organisation address | Caminho dos Álamos, 35, Santo António
9020-064 Funchal |
| Goal/objective | Promoting widespread access to Madeira’s archival heritage; fostering reading and literacy in the community; promoting research and knowledge about Madeira’s history and culture |
| Contact Person | Nuno Mota |
| Position of Contact Person | Director of Madeira Archives and Library Department |
| Organisation website | https://abm.madeira.gov.pt |
| Organisation type | local network of organizations who support and administer the programme |
| How many staff does your organisation employ? | 114 |
| About the Programme | |
| Basic details | |
| Programme name | BookStart Madeira |
| Country/Province/City where the programme takes place | Portugal/Autonomous Region of Madeira |
| Year started | 2022 (preparation and planning); book gifting will only start in 2023 |
| Programme goal/objective | Promoting family reading practices for children under 5 years old, privileging social contexts less exposed to books and reading |
| Funding sources | Presently, only public funding sources are being used; as the programme gains traction we plan to diversify funding and involve private funding and other public funding sources |
| Geographic coverage | Madeira archipelago (Portugal) |
| Purpose of the programme | |
| Not for profit? | Not for profit |
| Religious or political purpose? | None |
| Local consistency of model | |
| Is your programme model consistent across your geographic area, or are there regional differences? | Not consistent – For now and unless we get extra funding, we don’t plan to cover Madeira’s biggest urban centre and capital city (Funchal), at least entirely, since this is the geographic area already more intensely covered by our library and reading services; for the same funding reasons, we don’t plan to cover all the population of other two more populous municipalities located in the south of Madeira Island |
| Book Packs | |
| What are the contents of your gifting pack? | Two books per pack; information/marketing material about the programme. Every child will receive three packs between 0 and 5 years old. Books will be chosen according to the age of the participants. For the selection of the books, we are relying on our own expertise with book reading activities for children and also on input from the University of Madeira (Educational Psychology research team). |
| Is your programme offered free of charge to all families? | Yes, free of charge |
| Partnerships and Delivery | |
| What are your primary ‘points of contact’ with the population you serve? | Library, School |
| Who gifts/hands-out your pack to families?
|
Librarians, nursery school staff |
| Please list your other programme partnerships | Municipalities, which will be instrumental in reaching families and promoting the programme locally; municipal libraries; University of Madeira, which will develop longitudinal research on reading in the population intervened |
| Audience | |
| Is the programme universal or targeted? | The programme is targeted at children aged from 0 to 5 years old, living in more peripheral municipalities in Madeira archipelago, not just geographically but also in terms of socio-economic criteria; we will try to reach all the children in less populated municipalities, and introduce socio-economic exclusion criteria (for instance, levels of income) in the more populated municipalities |
| How many children does your programme serve a year? | The number of children is incremental in a year basis. In 2023 only 70 children will be served (belonging to just one municipality, which will work as a pilot project). In 2028 we expect to serve between 700 to 1000 children annually. |
| At what age/gifting period do children receive your programme. | 6 – 12 months; 24-36 months; 4-5 years |
| Diversity provision | |
| Does your program include provisions or resources for children with special needs? | no |
| What language populations does your programme serve? | Portuguese |
| Evaluation and research | |
| Have you conducted programme evaluation or research (including longitudinal)?
|
No |
| Further information or comments | |
| Please give us any further information that would be helpful for us and others to understand your programme | Madeira Archives and Library Department is the new regional agency responsible for the coordination of the regional library system and, more broadly, for promoting book and reading in Madeira. Therefore we intend to promote this programme in the scope of these goals and also as a way of developing the regional library system through confronting local libraries with new challenges and strategies for promoting reading in a community level. |