Who We Are
Our Vision.
A world where every child is read to every day. We envision a world where all parents have daily, meaningful, language-rich interactions with their children. To realize that ambition, Reach Out and Read will maximize the potential of pediatric primary care to promote the positive interactions that foster healthy development during the critical early years of a child’s life.
Our Mission.
Reach Out and Read gives young children a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together.
Our Model.
Reach Out and Read is the only national early literacy organization working directly with pediatric care providers to share the lifelong benefits that result from families reading aloud to their children every day. We know that nurturing, language-rich interactions like reading aloud together give young children a foundation for success. By integrating these experiences into pediatric care and providing the tools and encouragement families need to read aloud together, we can transform pediatric care practices and give children of all backgrounds and means a better start to life.
The Reach Out and Read program begins in infancy and continues through age five, with a special emphasis on children growing up in low-income communities. Pediatric teams provide new, age- and language appropriate books and share literacy advice with children and parents at each well-child visit. The program is both cost-effective, and evidence-based: research shows that Reach Out and Read results in more frequent reading at home, more enjoyment by families reading together, and accelerated language development. The effectiveness of our model is recognized by the American Academy of Pediatrics in a policy statement that recommends early literacy promotion as an essential component of pediatric care.
Our Story
Reach Out and Read (ROR), a national evidence-based model for linking literacy and health, is a successful key strategy in Ready for School’s education, health and place based impact portfolio to increase kindergarten readiness from 43 to 70% in a decade.
Since 2013, Ready for School relied on private funding to ensure that over 90% of the 10,000 children 0-5y in Holland, Zeeland and Hamilton could benefit from the ROR model. Because ROR has been so important in Ready for School’s multi-sector early childhood infrastructure building, Ready for School was invited to become the Reach Out and Read West Michigan affiliate in late 2019. The proposed business plan of the newly established Reach Out and Read West Michigan affiliate (nested within Ready for School dba RORWM) included plans for geographic expansion of ROR upon securing funding, and dovetailed with an opportunity for regional expansion to serve more children.
Together, as Reach Out and Read Michigan, we equip pediatric care providers with multilingual resources to increase early literacy skills by modeling and prescribing reading. Providers receive training, ongoing quality improvement, and tracking with special consideration for under-served populations.
This is a growth opportunity for Ready for School and a win for our communities. Ready for School's decade long partnership with Holland and Zeeland pediatric care providers catalyzed Reach Out and Read's growth in Michigan. With colleagues in the National ROR network taking notice of our success on the Lakeshore, it's a best-practice led by our local first-class medical champions.
Reach Out and Read is a national nonprofit that champions the positive effects of reading daily and engaging in other language-rich activities with young children. Reading together promotes healthy brain development, furthers language acquisition, and helps families build meaningful bonds.