The Black Bookshelf Project
Providing schools and early education centres with easy access to books and resources that celebrate diversity and inclusion, written and developed by people with lived experiences.
“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.”
— Malala Yousafzai
Our Mission.
TBBP’s mission is to equip children, youth, families, and organizations with the knowledge and tools they need to increase each community member's capacity to understand race and racism. Motivating and inspiring all who interact with the resources that we provide into informed anti-racist action. TBBP achieves this goal through the distribution of anti-racism literature, resources, and activities that are accessible and engaging to all ages. Books and resources are distributed, once requested, to community organizations, schools, childcare programs, or families/individuals.
TBBP has developed a centralized resource repository to house all of our educational materials. These materials address barriers to participation and promote resources that have the intention of facilitating healing and reconciliation. These materials are intended to meet and respond to each community's unique needs in building the foundations required to combat systemic and structural racism and discrimination. These accessible and engaging anti racism resources and activities facilitate sustainable developmental change by providing diverse communities with the foundational knowledge that they need to uplift the stories of people impacted by racism and other forms of discrimination.
TBBP hopes that curricular connections will be made to the books and resources we are providing to schools. TBBP is an antiracist resource that aims to promote equity, justice and diversity. We do this by providing access to a wide range of antiracist resources in order to create opportunities for authentic reflection to facilitate antiracist learning and growth for students and educators who are eager to go above and beyond the concepts of race, racism, and discrimination that are being addressed in the classroom.
Our Communities.
TBBP currently has bookshelves in 40 schools and childcare centres across Alberta and British Columbia. We are requesting that schools/organizations that receive a bookshelf agree to the following:
The books on the bookshelves are catalogued for ease of access.
The Black Bookshelf Project sticker remains on the spines of the donated books so that they are easily returned to the same area. Schools will be provided with extra spine stickers to replace damaged or worn ones.
The books donated by The Black Bookshelf Project are placed, together, in a prominent location in the school, along with the signage provided by TBBP.
Our Future.
We have created a waitlist for communities that are excited by our project and eager to welcome it into their libraries.
There are currently 15 schools (and counting) on our waitlist. Our waitlist is intended for schools that do not currently have the means to support the $1,300.00 purchase price of a TBBP Bookshelf. If your school can afford to purchase a bookshelf, the listing for it can be found here!
As we continue to grow (through the collection of donations through our website) we will continue to compile and collect resources for TBBP Bookshelves. Each TBBP Bookshelf will be assembled one at a time and delivered to the school or childcare centre that it has been developed for once it has been completed!
We fully intend on expanding our libraries as our access to resources increases. Through our subscription services TBBP can facilitate the addition of books that celebrate and educate students on the subjects of:
neuro divergence / neuro diversity
ableism
consent
gender identity
mental health awareness
Our list is not limited to only the subjects mentioned above. Our list will grow and evolve as the project and people involved grow and evolve. We firmly believe that good things take time and plan on providing communities with as many diverse resources as we can to set them up for success in working through the important issues within our modern society.
