About The Story Project and Olivia Richards

The Story Project turns popular children’s stories into a tool to support and improve children’s wellbeing. They use popular, diverse and engaging stories and book extracts to explore characters who are tackling the same challenges and emotions that children face, so that children can better understand themselves and others.

Olivia’s passion for using stories to support children’s wellbeing comes from her experience of teaching English and working as a Wellbeing Lead Practitioner, and from her research into this topic through a PHD and internationally with a Churchill Fellowship. These experiences helped her to create The Story Project, a social enterprise that provides training and resources for teachers to support them to use stories as a tool to develop children’s wellbeing and literacy. She started developing the project alongside my work in schools, and the impact of this has been really positive with 90% of participating teachers saying they have seen an improvement in children’s wellbeing. 

“I am now determined to grow the Story Project to support as many children as possible across the UK. Receiving the innovation award is going to help make this a reality. The package of support is exactly what The Story Project needs at this crucial stage where it is transitioning from a school-based initiative to an independent social enterprise. I am so excited to be able to work alongside the creators of the other fantastic initiatives that have won the award and to learn from all the expertise the FEA has to offer.” - Olivia Richards