In 2023, the Fondation Hachette pour la lecture is furthering its efforts to support ambitious projects that promote reading by supporting thirteen new initiatives and awarding each a grant ranging from €15,000 to €50,000.
The call for projects garnered 214 applications, from which the Fondation Hachette staff drew up a shortlist. An in-house committee of Group employees then reviewed the shortlisted initiatives, interviewed project leaders, and submitted the results to the Fondation’s executive committee.
The thirteen projects selected reflect the Fondation’s commitment to promote reading, writing and the French language to all audiences, with a special focus on young people and those who have limited access to reading. For this second call for projects, the Fondation also sought to back small non-profits whose initiatives deserve to be expanded significantly.
"The Fondation Hachette pour la lecture is proud to lend its support to these dedicated organisations carrying out remarkable work in the field. What unites us with these projects is a shared belief in reading as a universal medium for passing on knowledge, a symbol of freedom, and a cornerstone of preparing men and women to become active citizens” said Pierre Leroy, Chairman & CEO of Hachette Livre, and President of the Fondation Hachette pour la lecture.
The 13 organisations supported in 2023:
- Art'Sign, to organise a literary event in October 2023 that will promote access to books and reading for pleasure among deaf people.
- Asmae - Association Sœur Emmanuelle, which is developing an early childhood project in Burkina Faso to provide children 0 to 6 with the basic knowledge needed to enrol and stay in school, using the Yam Wakré picture book.
- French National Book Centre, to hold reading nights and distribute book vouchers to people with limited access to reading, particularly in rural areas and neighbourhoods designated as priority areas by the public authorities.
- Enfants du désert, to supply four libraries at boarding schools and enable girls in middle school to improve their educational conditions and their level of French.
- Fondation AP-HP, the French public hospital foundation, to create a special space for adolescents suffering from chronic illness hospitalised at Hôpital Armand-Trousseau in Paris, which will feature a library and cultural activities involving books.
- Zone d’Expression Prioritaire (ZEP), whose "Grow up writing” project gives young people aged 14 to 25 the chance to tell the story of their daily realities by putting pen to paper at writing workshops led by journalists.
- Le Rocher Oasis des cités and its "Read to integrate in France” project, which supports non-native speakers in priority neighbourhoods by offering French workshops.
- Lire et Sourire, which organises book readings in retirement homes to help prevent social isolation among the elderly.
- Nayma, which opened an education and social centre in Mayotte for out-of-school children aged 6 to 12, some of whom in very precarious situations, with the goal of bringing their educational level up through French classes and enrolment in public school.
- Plateforme Culture and the Livrodrome, a literary amusement park that travels from city to city during the summer offering a reading club for teenagers with activities and events all year long.
- Réparer le langage je peux, which gives young people aged 11 to 20 with limited access to reading to write novels as a group under the tutelage of writers, and then to publish their work and develop an annual competition for middle school and high school readers.
- Signes de sens, to continue trials of its “Accessible Youth Books” programme, which provides medical and social institutions with cases of books accessible to disabled youth, together with an activity in partnership with libraries.
- The Valentin Haüy association, to transcribe books in the French national curriculum into DAISY and braille, and raise awareness for the “Valentin Haüy media library at school” project, which enables teachers to provide disabled pupils who have difficulty reading with access to an accessible online platform available free of charge.