We’re committed to supporting the communities we serve through programmes designed to encourage children to explore their imagination through reading and writing.

Moto in the Community (MITC) supports the communities that Moto sites operate in many ways. A part of which, is with our two main schools programmes; Young Author Competition and Books for Schools.

What is MITC’s Young Author Competition?

Every year, we invite all the pupils at our adopted schools to take part in our Young Author Competiton. They are given three ‘story starters’, from which they choose one to write their own story of 200 words or more. Each year, a children’s author sets and judges the competition.

Launched annually in September, the competition, which gathered over 700 entries in 2018 alone, sees long-listed stories sent to publisher Oxford University Press, from where the judge will pick the winner.   This year, judge and Award Winning Children’s author Maria Farrer will be picking the winner, who will get a visit to their school from Maria, plus £2,500 for the school to spend on playground equipment and a £50 WHSmith voucher just for them!

In 2018, award-winning author Gill Lewis (Sky Hawk, Gorilla Dawn) deliberated over the entries, eventually awarding a pupil from Dolphinholme School, the adopted school of Moto Lancaster, the winner. You can read more about the winner, and the runners up, of the Young Author Competition in 2018, here.

What is MITC’s Books for Schools programme?

Open to all adopted schools, Books for Schools runs annually. Each adopted school can choose from specially created book bundles from Oxford University Press. The books then make their way to Moto sites, and each site presents their chosen school with the donated books.

Since 2006, Moto in the Community has presented adopted schools with over 125,000 books.

To find out who won the Young Author Competition in 2019, head here!

If you wan t to find out more about Moto in the Community, or find out how you can help, head to mototinthecommunity.co.uk.