The Read to Me, Tucson! partnership strives to raise awareness of the impact reading aloud to a child has on early brain development and family health. We work with businesses, service providers, neighborhoods, families, and individuals to provide early literacy resources to parents. The Read to Me, Tucson! partners (MAKE WAY FOR BOOKS, Reach Out and Read of Southern Arizona, and the Pima County Public Library) seek to partner with area businesses, civic groups, social service agencies, and government to encourage parents to read for twenty minutes every day with their children.

We know that the best way to raise successful children is to encourage family read aloud time early in a child's life. Through the “Read to Me, Tucson!” campaign, we have implemented two new programs, The Blue Book House Project and Family Read Aloud Nights as well as a public awareness campaign.

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“Read to Me, Tucson!” Action Campaign

Overview:
In 2008, MAKE WAY FOR BOOKS (MWFB) in collaboration with the Pima County Public Library (PCPL) and Reach Out and Read Southern Arizona (RORSA) will launch “Read to Me, Tucson!” This is an action campaign targeting low-income families in Tucson.

About MWFB:
MWFB promotes early literacy in limited resource areas of Tucson and southern Arizona by providing young children an opportunity to fall in love with books and reading. Our vision is that all children will enter school with the necessary early literacy skills to be successful. Children who have never been read to, have never held a book or turned the pages, are unprepared for school. Yet, we know that literacy is the key to success in school and in life.

Our Partners:
PCPL and RORSA share the similar vision of providing a love of books and reading among young children and their families. Last year, PCPL educated more than 4,600 parents and childcare givers on early literacy and presented more than 3,175 storytimes for babies, toddlers, preschoolers and families. PCPL also supported over 12,900 youth with their homework help program and educated more than 500 incarcerated parents, both men and women through the Motheread/Fatheread program. RORSA has been providing high quality children’s books to pediatric clinics in Southern Arizona since 2000. Last year 36 RORSA clinics distributed over 38,000 books to low income families.

The Need:
Research shows the most important indicator of a child’s success in school is whether children have books in their home and adults who read aloud to them. Children from low income families average only 25 hours of being read to before entering the first grade. Children from middle class homes average 1000 hours before entering first grade (Hart and Risley, 1995).

In Tucson, nearly half of all children are living below 200% of the poverty line and nearly 14% of families are below poverty. Eight out of 10 of these children will arrive at school without the necessary early literacy skills to prepare them to read at grade level by third grade.

In 2005, 48% of Arizona’s fourth grade students scored below the basic reading level, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a rate of underperformance that is 10% higher than the national average. Arizona currently ranks 45th in the nation for high school dropout rates. The seeds of this underperformance are planted long before children even enter school. Children living in poverty are especially at risk: at age five, our poorest children are one to two years developmentally behind their less economically-disadvantaged peers. Research indicates that these gaps continue to grow as children age. Many of the children who do not get the stimuli and support needed early in life will never perform at standard levels.

In the preschool years, the infant brain doubles in size and this growth is dependent on stimulation like being read to and talked to. The brain connections that are stimulated the most remain, while under-utilized ones are discarded. In these early years, exposure to oral language and positive experiences with books and reading provide a child with the development of early literacy (reading readiness) necessary to be successful in school and life.

Plan of Action:
We know that the best way to raise successful children is to encourage family read aloud time early in a child's life. Through the “Read to Me, Tucson!” campaign, we intend to raise awareness of the impact reading aloud to a child has on early brain development and family health as well as provide early literacy resources to parents. Messages encouraging reading every day will be focused among the populations most likely to benefit and who overwhelmingly do not currently use the public library. MWFB, RORSA, and PCPL seek to partner with area businesses, civic groups, social service agencies, and government to encourage parents to read for twenty minutes every day with their children.

Following are the components of “Read to Me, Tucson!”:
• MWFB will collaborate with other literacy organizations – primarily the PCPL and RORSA – to coordinate efforts in engaging the community in the “Read to Me, Tucson!” project. This campaign will incorporate the PCPL one-day early literacy conference, “Creating a Community of Readers” scheduled for March 5, 2008 and other similar projects.
• MWFB will contract with an advertising agency to develop a city-wide public awareness campaign to include messages on bus stops, high-visibility outdoor banners, counter-top displays, posters, grocery bags, and shopping carts. They will include colorful photographs of local celebrities reading to small children and bright, literature-inspired illustrations. The signs will say, “Read to me, Tucson!” All materials will be printed in English and Spanish.
• MWFB, RORSA, and PCPL will provide banners and interior displays to partner clinics, childcare centers, libraries, community centers, and businesses.
• Blue Book Houses (bookcases shaped like houses) will be located in community centers and social service offices where families frequently visit. The Blue Book Houses will be stocked with early literacy pamphlets and other materials encouraging families to read aloud together. MWFB will work with businesses and groups such as Girl/Boy Scouts to build the Blue Book Houses, implement book drives, and raise awareness of the project. PCPL will adopt 50% of the Blue Book Houses as part of their Books While You Wait program. All PCPL branches will serve as a donation site.
• MWFB, in partnership with Healthy Families, will provide at-risk new parents in Tucson with tips and resources to help their babies develop early language and literacy skills.
• MWFB will present Family Read Aloud Nights in collaboration with RORSA, PCPL, The City of Tucson, and neighborhood associations. Family Read Aloud Nights will encourage more parent involvement in nurturing early literacy development for their young children. These events will be held in community centers. They will feature a family storytime where effective reading aloud is modeled. Simple activities will be shared for parents to complete with their children at home. Each child will receive a new book.
• The Gift of Reading Project will encourage our community to value reading and books. During the 2008 Holiday Season MWFB will invite area organizations to donate books as holiday gifts to low-income families. MWFB will collaborate with area community centers, childcare centers, and social service agencies to distribute the donated books.

“Read to Me, Tucson!” Expected Results:
The overall goal of “Read to Me, Tucson!” is to increase early literacy and long-term school success for children in Tucson. We intend to educate the public about the importance of reading to a child every day starting at birth so that s/he will read at grade level by the third grade.

Evaluation:
These objectives will be measured through a variety of methods. We will measure success by the number of families participating in the campaign.
• Public awareness will be measured by the number of times early literacy is mentioned in the local news media and the number of families participating in Family Read Aloud events.
• Family Read Aloud events will be reviewed through parent questionnaires and the number of families participating in these events.
• The Blue Book House project will be evaluated by the number of books received by low-income families. Host sites will complete evaluations of the project as will support volunteers.

“Read to Me, Tucson!” is an innovative collaboration between three organizations that reach low-income families who are most likely to benefit from early literacy efforts. Our preventive approach to illiteracy is the most effective and long-term solution to building a bright, healthy community in Tucson and Pima County.

Thank you for your interest in “Read to Me, Tucson!”

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