About Fulfilling their Potential

Fulfilling their Potential is a national programme aimed at transforming public library services for 11-19 year olds. It was piloted in the North West region. It is focused around libraries delivering the following outcomes

Young people

• Feel that the library is a key space for them
• Have opportunities to shape library services
• Take part in creative reading opportunities
• See the library as a gateway to community

This was the first time the whole North West Region worked together to put Fulfilling their Potential principles into practice.

Almost all of FtP NoW’s required outcomes were achieved

• Significant numbers of staff took part in training activities which developed their skills and confidence with young people
• Engagement with young people was hugely successful - many of the participating library services reported an increase in usage by this group 951 young people were directly involved in individual projects
• Many of the projects had a real impact, with tangible changes taking place. Examples are: new reading groups are in place in Sefton and Rochdale; a young people’s café in Halton, a training programme for staff (Warrington), the first loan collection in a youth club in Cheshire, library layout changes in Cumbria, Knowsley and elsewhere
• Many of the local authority projects have the potential to be further developed and mainstreamed
• Learning from other authorities’ best practice was significant
• Partnership work at a local level was strengthened, with new links between libraries and youth services, Connexions, schools, etc

There are examples of work done in other library authorities too to use FtP toconnect with hard to reach groups. Between October 2005 and March 2007, three library authorities in South-West England took part in Partners for Change (Word, 41kb), an ambitious project funded by The Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Its aim was to develop new ways for library services to engage with socially excluded young people and young people at risk. 

An Improvement Framework (see link right) has been developed with input from ASCEL and the National Youth Agency to help public libraries to improve their provision for young people so that they can deliver these outcomes.

For further information about the Fullfilling their Potential programme visit The Reading Agency website