The Whitley Wood Playgroup initiative was funded by the Research England Participatory Research Fund. Our team worked collaboratively with parents and other community leaders to co-create storybook sessions for parents and children under 5 in the Whitley Wood area.

Find out more about our regular storybook playgroup at Hexham Road Community Centre. This was set up following the success of our playgroup in Whitley Wood after community consultation.

Find out more about how our participatory approach helps us to learn about communities and what will work in different contexts

The research team ran a book group for parents in the Whitley area to promote a love of reading. The group met once a month to discuss a book that they had chosen.

Read about how we started our very first set of storybook reading sessions in Whitley Library