Milton Keynes-based charity VICTA awarded share of £80k grant funding by Audible
VICTA, a Milton Keynes-based national charity working with children and young people with visual impairments, has been selected by Audible as one of three youth organisations in the UK to participate in its new global Imagine Louder initiative.
The programme - designed to bring audio storytelling into the communities and spaces of young people from underrepresented backgrounds - will award grant funding of up to £80,000 between the three organisations, alongside support to integrate audio storytelling into existing programmes and the provision of free six-month Audible Premium memberships.
VICTA plans to use the support to build on its Beyond the Book Club for blind or partially sighted young people, using shared audiobooks and creative responses to stories.
Nick Schofield, CEO of VICTA, commented: “We are delighted to have Audible’s support through Imagine Louder for Beyond the Book, a natural evolution of VICTA’s Book Club. This support will help us create more opportunities for blind and partially sighted children and young people to connect with stories and each other, discover new interests and build confidence to explore what’s possible.”
Audible, a leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, recently announced the launch of Imagine Louder, a new global initiative designed to fuel imagination, discovery and a love of listening among young people by bringing audio storytelling into their communities and spaces. Imagine Louder will provide free six-month Audible Premium memberships to 15,000 young people across its first three years, offering access to more than 180,000 hours of audio content per membership.
The first cohort includes seven nonprofit organisations across the UK, US and Mexico, with three UK organisations – VICTA, Be Free Campaign and Exodus Youth Worx UK – selected to receive up to £80,000 grant funding between them, alongside support to integrate audio storytelling into their existing programmes for underrepresented young people aged 12–18. Imagine Louder is Audible's first global programme leveraging its core service for social good, with plans to expand to additional countries in the coming years.
Rather than simply providing access to audiobooks, Imagine Louder is a community-centred model that gives organisations the funding and flexibility to make audio storytelling part of the work they already do - from mental health programming to book clubs, youth centres and creative workshops, indicating just how versatile audio is as a tool for youth engagement and development.
The UK launch follows a pilot with the National Literacy Trust, as part of Audible’s ongoing collaboration with the charity. In the pilot, which reached over 1,000 students across the country, every teacher surveyed reported that the programme encouraged students to listen to more audiobooks. The approach addresses a clear challenge identified in the National Literacy Trust’s 2026 research, which found that reading enjoyment drops from 46.9% among children aged 8–11 to just 29.5% among those aged 11–14.
Imagine Louder is led by Audible's Global Center for Urban Innovation, which spearheads the company's social and economic impact initiatives around the world. Imagine Louder sits within the company’s Imagination Next focus area, which works to expand opportunities for young people around the world. Last year Audible invested $3.3 million across 27 social impact programmes in 12 countries, positively impacting more than 1,000 young people and supporting over 660 emerging creators worldwide.