Building Stronger Communities | 22 August 2026

Every journey begins with a story waiting to be told. Some stories live between the covers of a book, while others are carried through families, cultures, communities, music and shared memories.

To celebrate Children’s Book Week, Building Stronger Communities explored the history of this much-loved Australian tradition, the changing role of libraries, the wellbeing benefits of reading and whether artificial intelligence has a place in creativity and storytelling.

📚 The Story Behind Children’s Book Week

Children’s Book Week in Australia dates back to 1945, when the Children’s Book Council of Australia was established at a time when Australian children’s books were limited and local authors and illustrators received little recognition.

Over the decades, Book Week has become an important part of Australian childhood. It brings books to life through storytelling, school activities and, of course, the much-loved Book Week costume parade.

🎧 Listen: Book Week History and Now

For many families, those costumes bring wonderful memories—as well as the occasional last-minute panic when a child announces the night before that they need to arrive at school dressed as their favourite character!

Libraries were once seen primarily as quiet places filled with shelves of printed books. While books remain at their heart, today’s libraries have developed into welcoming community spaces where people can learn, create, study and connect.

Modern libraries may offer:

• Printed books, magazines and newspapers
• E-books and downloadable audiobooks
• Computers, internet access and free Wi-Fi
• Study spaces, meeting rooms and creative studios
• Children’s activities and early-literacy programs
• Book clubs, workshops and community-language collections
• Digital learning and technology support
• Local photographs, oral histories and historical records
• Accessible and home-library services

For some people, the library provides access to technology they may not have at home. For others, it offers a safe place to study, meet people or simply spend time without the expectation of having to purchase something.

Libraries have changed with the communities they serve, but their purpose remains deeply connected to access, learning and belonging.

If you haven’t visited your local library lately, you may be surprised by everything waiting inside—and online.

🎧 Listen: From Bookshelves to Community Connection

🧠 Brain Energy: Reading, Storytelling and Wellbeing

Reading is not only about education. Stories can give our minds a break from everyday pressures, reduce feelings of stress and help us make sense of our emotions and experiences.

Through stories, we can enter someone else’s world, encounter lives different from our own and build greater empathy. A character’s experience may also help us recognise something within ourselves that we have struggled to name.

In this week’s Brain Energy segment, Luke Evans explored the connection between reading, imagination and mental wellbeing—and why stories can help us feel understood and less alone.

🎧 Listen: Brain Energy with Luke Evans

📌 Community Noticeboard with Siv

Click on your local council below to discover more events happening in your community.

🎙️ Welcome to Hour Two

📵 Switch Off and Connect

This week’s challenge is to put down your phone, switch off the screens and reconnect through the power of a good story. Read a book, share a favourite childhood tale with someone you love, or tell someone about a book you’ve enjoyed and use it to start a conversation.

👀 Through Young Eyes with Piper

Piper Johnson joined Michelle in the studio for the second hour to explore storytelling from a younger perspective.

❤️ Can Artificial Intelligence Tell a Story With Heart?

Technology is already changing how stories are written, shared and experienced. We can read on a Kindle, listen through Audible or use artificial intelligence to help develop an idea.

But can AI genuinely create a story with heart?

The challenge was to use AI as a writing assistant while keeping human imagination at the centre. The person still needed to choose the characters, setting and direction, then review and change the result so the finished story reflected their own voice.

This raised some important questions:

• Is an AI-assisted story still your story?
• Does AI strengthen creativity or influence it too much?
• What remains uniquely human about storytelling?
• Should writers disclose when AI has helped create their work?
• Can technology support young people who lack confidence in writing?

AI may help us find words, organise ideas or imagine different possibilities—but meaning comes from the experiences, emotions and intention we bring to the story.

🎧 Listen: Michelle AI Story Challenge – The Photograph

🎧 Listen: Piper AI Story Challenge – The Race for Number 1

🖤💛❤️ The Great Book Swap

As part of the episode, Building Stronger Communities announced plans to hold a Great Book Swap in support of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

The Great Book Swap encourages people to exchange pre-loved books while raising funds to help provide culturally relevant books and learning resources to children and families in remote First Nations Communities.

Our community Book Swap is being planned for October, with the final date and location to be announced.

You don’t have to wait to make a difference. Donations can already be made through the Great Book Swap page on the Building Stronger Communities website.

Schools, workplaces, libraries and community groups can also access resources through the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and host their own Great Book Swap.

💭 Every Story Matters

Stories do not belong only inside hardcover books.

They can be read on a screen, heard through headphones, passed between generations, preserved by a library, expressed through music or developed with new technology.

The way we experience stories may continue to change, but their power remains. Stories help us imagine, learn, remember, connect and understand one another.

Every person has a story. Every community carries stories worth preserving.

And on Building Stronger Communities, every story matters.

🎙️ Coming Up Next Week

Next week on Building Stronger Communities, we explore Finding Connection: Loneliness, Homelessness and Belonging in Community.

We’ll look at the growing experience of loneliness among young people, the challenges faced by older women experiencing homelessness, and stories of adoption, family and finding where you belong.

We’ll also celebrate Wear It Purple Day, standing with LGBTQIA+ young people and reminding them that they are seen, supported and valued.

Join us next Saturday from 8 am on SWR 99.9 FM—Sydney’s West.