Empathy Day shows record-breaking reach for 2023

The Empathy Day scheme has revealed a significant uptake with 58% more children engaged with this year. 

EmpathyLab, which organises the annual event each summer, has released new data showing that 636,000 young people engaged with the project this year, up from 13,000 in the first year in 2017. The number of schools involved increased by 62%, up from 1,800 in 2022 to more than 3,000 in 2023.  

This year’s event took place on 8th June and was the second year of formal support from publishers known as "Empathy Builders" – some 47 altogether including Pan Macmillan, Bloomsbury and Nosy Crow.

Initiatives for this year’s theme, Mission Empathy, included Puffin’s virtual workshop with Lee Newbery, which reached more than 1,800 children, as well as Nosy Crow’s online event with the National Literacy Trust and Cath Howe, reaching 5,000 children. Andersen sponsored the Early Years pack, and Bloomsbury experimented with a scheme incentivising staff to reach into their communities and involve local schools – a model organisers are keen to develop next year. Usborne donated 500 copies of Lift-the-Flap Questions & Answers About Refugees by Katie Daynes and Ashe de Sousa, as a registration incentive.

There was a formal partnership with the children’s laureate team with Joseph Coelho leading a national assembly streamed into classrooms this year. It was the event’s most popular event ever, with nearly 400,000 viewers tuning in nationwide.

Organisers also ran their first ever live event, for 550 children in Manchester’s velodrome in partnership with Manchester Libraries, with Rob Biddulph, Rashmi Sirdeshpande and Sophy Henn. 

Another campaign first was the project’s first book, We’ve Got This! (Quarto), described as an empathy handbook with Quarto donating all the royalties to EmpathyLab.

There was a bookshop pilot with several independent bookshops including Booka, Drake the Bookshop, Wonderland and Mostly Books “to increase community participation and spread the reach into schools”, organisers said. “This great activation on the high street, combined with fantastically positive support from Bookshop.org has created a real area for focus and growth for 2024.”

Public library engagement was also “extremely important” in this year’s campaign, according to organisers. “This year saw continuing high levels of library authorities taking part – for many it’s become a strategic priority, for instance in Edinburgh it’s now a city-wide core event. Libraries drove rich public engagement.” 

Additionally, future plans for Empathy Day have been revealed. There will be a launch on 25th September, to create a focal point for children to revisit their Empathy Resolutions or make new ones and reinforce the organisation’s social action emphasis.

Organisers added: “We will be providing five weeks of fun and engaging new Empathy Resolution-based content and activities, including new author videos, input from children and teachers, tips and guidance, as well as character-focused reading recommendations.” 

They will also launch the 2024 Read for Empathy collection of selected titles on 8th February and Empathy Day 2024 will itself take place on 6th June.