Our Mission
Reach Out and Read prepares America’s youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together. We build on the unique relationship between parents and medical providers to develop essential early literacy skills in young children via the existing health infrastructure.
Our Impact
In the Greater New York region, we provide books and training to over 230 Reach Out and Read programs in predominantly low-income communities in New York City, Long Island, and the Greater Hudson Valley. As a result of this evidence-based intervention, parents learn new ways to stimulate their children’s literacy development, have more books in their home, and read to their children more. Parents are supported as their children’s first and most important teachers, and children grow up to become avid readers.
Our program is a proven intervention, supported by 15 independent, peer reviewed research studies. Studies were published in renowned journals including Clinical Pediatrics, Journal of the National Medical Association, and Pediatrics. During the preschool years, children served by Reach Out and Read score three to six months ahead of their non-Reach Out and Read peers on vocabulary tests, preparing them to start school on target.
Studies have not only found significant effects on children’s language development, but also benefits to health clinics and the people working there. When evaluating 17 clinics, researchers found that “clinicians at the majority of the study clinics believed that the program boosted clinic morale, increased provider satisfaction, improved patient- clinician relationships, and promoted a literacy-rich environment.”