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This paper reports on an evaluation of an Early Years Writer in Residence Project in an urban area of socio-economic disadvantage in Scotland. This project is the result of an inter-organisational partnership between Scottish Book Trust and Home-Start. Scottish Book Trust is a national organisation that aims to encourage parents and carers to enjoy books with children from birth. Home-Start offers support, friendship and practical help to parents with young children in local communities. The families Home-Start work with need support for many reasons including post-natal illness, disability, bereavement, the illness of a parent or child, or social isolation. The Early Years Writer in Residence project, funded by the Scottish Arts Council, was established to provide a residency with a picture book writer/illustrator in an urban area, with the aim of promoting parents’ confidence and a love of book sharing within the community.

The central theme of this project is the Residency involving the author working collaboratively with a Home-Start group of parents. The group, with the support of the author, are creating a picture book which will be published and distributed to young children across Scotland as part of a national book gifting programme. Furthermore, parents and children will also be invited to take part in a number of activities allowing them to explore literature and arts activities both within and beyond their local community. This multi-faceted project also involves work in local libraries and nursery schools and training opportunities for professionals and volunteers to promote the benefits of book sharing with young children. However, the focus of this paper explores the central theme of the project, namely, the impact of the collaboration between the participating parents and the author.

The aims of the research were

·      To examine the perceptions of parents and other participants during the course of the one-year writer in residence project.

·      To investigate the impact of the Writer in Residence Project on the parents and their children in terms of their involvement in literacy practices

·      To identify significant features of the project and critically appraise the implementation of the initiative

The study is underpinned by a body of literature in the fields of early intervention, home literacy practices and emergent literacy.  A major theme of early intervention projects worldwide has been the implementation of initiatives aimed at the development of literacy acquisition (Bus et al.,1995; Fraser et al., 2001; Moore and Wade, 2003). Parents are children’s first educators and a range of studies suggest that shared literacy practices in the home can contribute positively towards children’s later literacy learning (Weinberger, 1996; Sénéchal and LeFevre, 2002; Makin, 2006; Reese et al., 2010). Furthermore, in the Scottish context recent policy frameworks have emphasised interagency collaboration in conjunction with new approaches that supports building the capacity of individuals, families and communities (Scottish Government, 2008).

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