Librarians from across the country have been submitting their stories of impact to share with MPs and political leaders as part of the Libraries Change Lives Campaign.

The Games Library initiative by Westminster City Council and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), has made a positive impact on literacy, language development and communication skills for young people.

The Games Library launched during International Games Week in October 2023 at 18 libraries and archives and is still being offered in both boroughs.

Libraries Change Lives takes place 24-28 June 2024 and culminates in a parliamentary event that will put the value and importance of libraries in the political spotlight through stories and case studies like this one.

The Games Library: a new way to reach young people

The service has a strong provision for younger children, adults and older residents, but there is a gap in the provision for young people, so there was a need take an innovative approach to developing services for young people across the boroughs.

The Games Library provided the ideal opportunity to expand upon local interest in table-top gaming, enhancing existing clubs, establishing a new library service provision while also increasing accessibility to games and supporting literature.

The initiative created fun, inclusive and accessible safe spaces using tabletop games as a way of improving children and young people’s confidence in reading, socialising and leadership.

Positive experiences with lasting impact

The use of table-top games has helped vulnerable children and young people engage with therapy, prevent school exclusions, and supported those with special educational needs and disabilities to engage more easily with others and learning.

A positive impact on literacy, language development and communication skills; increasing motivation to read, improved reading comprehension, listening and critical thinking skills, and the development of language skills, including children and young people whose first language is not English.

Other benefits include:

• Mental health and wellbeing support, improving self-esteem and building meaningful positive relationships with friends and family through play.
• Improved empathy and understanding, through teaching empathy and social skills
• Enhanced social skills and help to build frameworks for how to interact positively with others
• Promotes waiting, turn taking, sharing, how to cope with losing, making conversation, problem solving, compromising, collaborating and flexible thinking
• Supports responding to social situations inside and outside the home for how to cope with change in a playful environment.
• Creates positive experiences with friends and opportunities to form new friendships
• Supports skills in public speaking
• Creates an atmosphere that is safe and understanding

See how libraries are changing lives in your area, view the interactive impact map