TXIKIKIDS CORNER: BOOKSTART EUSKADI.
Basque Country of Spain.
December 26th 2023
Asociación Artística-Sociocultural Mestiza
Paseo Zarategi 82 bajo Izda, 20015 Donostia –San Sebastian, Gipuzkoa, Spain
Mestiza is an innovative non-profit organization committed to strengthening community through art and education. Established in 2008, we aim to promote and develop artistic, educational and socio-cultural projects that reflect the multicultural diversity of our environment in San Sebastian and the Basque Country. Mestiza develops its projects and activities based on a strong relationship with statutory/local and regional governments (City Council of San Sebastián, Donostia Kultura, The Gipuzkoa Provincial Council) and with the support of a network of volunteers and private institutions. One of our main aims is to promote reading and literature, with a special focus on early childhood. For that, we created the Txikikids Corner Programme in 2009, which encompasses several reading activities based on our belief in the power of books, songs and nursery rhymes. This programme encourages families to share books, read aloud and read for pleasure to their children. Txikikids Corner´s reading activities are held in the local libraries in the Basque Country of Spain and they all are free and inclusive.
Ana Molina
Director of the early years programme
https://bookstart-es.org.es/
Non profit
3
TXIKIKIDS CORNER: BOOKSTART EUSKADI.
Basque Country of Spain.
2009
Bookstart Euskadi is a universal reading promotion programme through which children (0-3 years old) an annual package of books, free of charge, with the aim of inspiring a love of stories, songs and rhymes from birth. Bookstart Euskadi informs parents about the reading benefits in their children’s development.
Bookstart Euskadi is being funded by the Department of Culture, Cooperation, Youth and Sports of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, Ermua City Council and Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council from the Basque Country, Spain. The programme is also supported by The High Commissioner against Child Poverty of Spain. Txikikids Corner is funded by the City Council of San Sebastián, Donostia Kultura, The Gipuzkoa Provincial Council and The Spanish Basque Country government.
Basque country of Spain.
The programme is not for profit.
None.
Consistent.
Our LiburuPacks (the name of the book bags) contain three books (in three languages: basque, spanish and english), a rhyme sheet, an information leaflet on the benefits of reading from the earliest years and a bookmark with the calendar of the “Liburu Baby Kluba” reading promotion sessions.
Yes.
Libraries, Public Cultural Centres, Municipal Nursery Schools.
Librarians, Municipal Nursery School Teachers, volunteers.
Our volunteers are an important key from the beginning to the end and during the process of the development of Bookstart Euskadi in each municipality. The volunteers’ profiles are diverse and have different skills to help us in many programme areas since they will help to prepare book bags and support reading sessions, illustrators and students.
Bookstart Euskadi is a universal programme and targets children from 0 to 3 years and their families, tutors and guardians.
Since we started the pilot project Bookstart Euskadi in June 2022 to February 2023 we have delivered 895 book packages and 15 packages for children with additional needs in three cities of the Spanish Basque Country. Ordizia, Gipuzkoa, Ermua, Bizkaia and Vitiria-Gasteiz, Araba.
We focus on children from birth to 3 years old.
Bookstart Euskadi believes that it is essential to offer an inclusive offer for children and their families, and therefore provides the possibility of including books for children with special needs. To adapt to the different demands, it includes. Bookbag: for deaf and hard-of-hearing children or hearing-impaired children. Bookbag: for blind and visually impaired children or visually impaired children. Bookbag: for children with motor difficulties.
From the beginning, Txikikids Corner programme introduced its trilingual activities as an innovative aspect, to attract different audiences, so that the fact of not mastering a single language is not an excuse or impediment to attend the activity and at the same time bring the public closer to the libraries and cultural spaces of their locality. So that we provide material and reading sessions in basque, spanish and english, the first two are the official languages of the Basque Country in Spain.
We collaborate with the Education Sciences Department of the University of the Basque Country to research and evaluate Bookstart Euskadi in each municipality and globally in the basque territory. We have conducted an evaluation of Bookstart Euskadi in Ermua with the collaboration of the University of the Basque Country, that was carried out by Joana Miguelena Torrado, PhD in Education and lecturer of “Socio-educational Intervention in Family, Childhood, Adolescence” in the Degree of Social Education in the Faculty of Education, Philosophy and Anthropology of Donostia. She is the author of several scientific articles related to childhood and adolescence under a protection measure and their transition to adult life. The evaluation has not been published since it has finished recently. At the moment we have not included longitudinal study.
