Kari KurjiakaApril 02, 2025
Any of the pediatric waiting rooms at Harmony Healthcare Long Island could easily be mistaken for the children’s section at a local library.
Literacy corners in each of the five Nassau County locations welcome families with rows of diverse, multi-lingual books, child-size chairs and tables, and inviting decorations that remind young patients—even before seeing their doctor—that “Reading Will Take You Everywhere.”
The reading areas, set up through Harmony’s partnership with United Hospital Fund, have created a new culture of literacy at the federally qualified health centers, says pediatrician Suanne Kowal-Connelly, MD.
“We have this ability to promote literacy so you see it—it’s front and center,” said Dr. Kowal-Connelly, who is Harmony’s director of pediatrics and pediatric clinical quality. “It just becomes obvious that literacy matters.”
As one of four pediatric practices participating in the third year of UHF’s early childhood literacy project, Harmony Healthcare received guidance, resource connections, book donations, and $7,500 in funding in 2024 to integrate literacy into its practice.
The partnership came at a particularly fortuitous moment for the health system given that, just a week after joining the UHF project, Harmony was also taken off the waiting list for the national Reach Out and Read program, which provides pediatric practices with books and guidance to foster early literacy and relational health at well-child visits.
With both programs in place, Harmony was able to use the UHF resources to build the waiting room literacy corners, as well as expand book offerings outside the well-child visits, and to patients’ siblings.
“It really launched a whole literacy campaign,” Dr. Kowal-Connelly said. “The literacy corners introduce the idea of the importance of books, and then it continues in the exam room.”