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.
Click
on the logos above to visit the partner's website
“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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