Regular PSTA facilitator and former town mayor Jon Harvey has published a new edition of The Mayor’s Bear and Other Stories of Hope.
Alongside the original story, the new edition includes three short stories and teacher notes. The stories explore making playgrounds more welcoming and inclusive, celebrating the achievement of a young refugee, and creating kinder, more dementia-friendly towns. They introduce children , and the adults reading with them , to local government and to the possibility of taking part in shaping their communities.
For public-service practitioners, this is a gentle example of civic learning rooted in imagination, hope and place: helping young people see that they may not be able to change the whole world, but they can help to make one part of it better.
Read Jon Harvey’s press release and find out more about the book.