HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius reaches out to a child at the Takoma Park Pediatrics 'Summer of Service' Reach Out & Read Event.

From time to time, this blog spotlights D.C. LEARNs member organizations and the work they are doing to promote literacy in the District. If your organization is a member of D.C. LEARNs (or wants to become one), and you have an idea for a member spotlight, please contact us!

Reach Out and Read (ROR) is a national non-profit devoted to promoting early childhood literacy through partnership with pediatricians and pediatric clinics. In the clinics’ waiting areas volunteer readers entertain the children while modeling the pleasures of reading aloud for the parents. At each office visit from the time a child is 6 months old until they reach school age, they are given an age-appropriate book to keep and their parents are given advice on the importance of reading aloud. Early childhood and family literacy programs like ROR involve parents in their children’s foundational education by encouraging them to read aloud together. Studies have shown that children who are read aloud to on a regular basis enter kindergarten better prepared to succeed, with larger vocabularies, and stronger language skills.

Reach Out and Read of Metro D.C. (ROR DC) was launched in 1998 to serve the metro D.C. area. Now it serves more than 30,000 children annually at 36 sites. Each year more than 90,000 new and used children’s books are handed out. These are sometimes the only access the child has to new books.

In 2008 ROR DC contracted with D.C. LEARNs to manage the ROR DC’s day-to-day operations, and over the last year, Dawn Thomas, a D.C. LEARNs staff member who also helps coordinate D.C. LEARNs’ AmeriCorps program, has served as ROR DC’s Coalition Leader on a part-time basis. Under her direction, and with the leadership of ROR DC Board President Gabrielle Aponte-Henkel (who left the Board in June) and the rest of the ROR DC board, the program has thrived, gaining new member sites, increased book donations, and new donors. On July 31st Dawn transitioned to working full time on D.C. LEARNs’ Literacy*AmeriCorps project, as the national office of ROR is planning to take charge of staffing local coalitions throughout the country next year.

For information about the national program please visit www.reachoutandread.org.

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