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About Reach Out and Read Washington, DC
| Reach Out and Read of Metro DC was a featured charity in the Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington 2005 for our "excellence, innovation, and cost-effectiveness." Click the button below to make a secure online donation and become a partner in our continued success!
Your gift will help us reach our goal of distributing 50,000 books this year to Washington, DC's neediest infants, toddlers and preschoolers by trusted health providers, who encourage parents to share these books with their young children every day. |
Welcome to Reach Out and Read of Metro DC!Scroll down this page to find out more about:
 Upcoming Meetings and Events
Volunteer Opportunities
ROR Friends and Supporters
Participating Health Centers About Us
In their clinical experience, doctors often find that many low-income children encounter learning difficulties in the early years of school. Dr. Kima Joy Taylor, then practicing pediatrics at Unity Health Care's Upper Cardozo Clinic, had the idea that providing books to patients would make it more likely that parents would read to their children, an essential precursor for the development of school readiness skills, including language proficiencies and early literacy skills. She joined forces with Reach Out and Read (ROR), the national program that believes giving books to children is not only a good thing to do, but is also an evidence-based strategy to promote health in primary care pediatrics. The resulting partnership, Reach Out and Read of Metro DC, is now a coalition of 34 ROR programs operating in hospitals and health centers in Washington, DC area, whose doctors deliver a full dose of early literacy to low-income children ages six months to five years. Reach Out and Read builds on the special relationship between physicians and parents to promote the love of books in children by advising parents on the importance of reading aloud to them. To facilitate this important developmental activity, health care providers give a brand-new, age-appropriate book to take home at each well child visit.
Coalition Announcements
Reach Out and Read of Metro DC Campaigns on Capitol Hill!
On March 5th, 2009, Reach Out and Read of Metro DC participated in Reach Out and Read (ROR) National's Capitol Hill Day activities. Every year, ROR coalitions from around the country convene on Capitol Hill and meet with members of Congress to advocate for federal funding for the Reach Out and Read program. This year, our mission was to gain the support and promise of Congress to sign an appropriations letter that would increase ROR's funding to 10 million dollars for FY 2010. RORDC Medical Director, Dr. Andrea Anderson, and RORDC coalition leader, Jessica Young, met with staffers from both Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's office and Congresswoman Donna Edwards' office (of Maryland's 4th District). Both offices were extremely interested in RORDC, and expressed their passion for and belief in the work we do. We were able to obtain the support of Congresswoman Norton for a 6th consecutive year when she signed the appropriations letter by the April 2nd deadline! Dr. Anderson and Jessica's role in Hill Day was just one piece of a much larger picture. Reach Out and Read broke a record this year by scheduling well over 300 congressional/senate meetings! The hard work of all of our ROR advocates paid off; a total of 130 members of congress signed on to the 10 million dollar House Appropriations letter. This was a truly fantastic and monumental accomplishment for Reach Out and Read. A very special thank you to RORDC Medical Director, Dr. Andrea Anderson, for all of her dedication to the coalition-we appreciate your hard work!
Northwest High School's National Honor Society: Student Philanthropy at its Best
Students from the National Honor Society (NHS) at Northwest High School in Germantown, MD have once again shown their amazing support of the work of our coalition through their annual campaign to raise book-purchasing funds for RORDC sites. The rising literacy advocates, lead by NHS Advisor Becky Ahearn, were able to raise a record breaking $4400.00 for Reach Out and Read DC's book budget! Northwest's NHS developed a creative and effective model for raising funds for RORDC about three years ago. When Advisor Becky Ahearn expressed interest in involving her students in a community service project to benefit RORDC, she and then RORDC Director Rachael Walker were able to come up with an opportunity for students to raise funds for books so that their eventual book donation would be much greater in number than a typical book drive would collect and distribute. Because RORDC is able to purchase high quality children's books at discounted prices, funds donated and delegated for book purchasing can go a long way; much farther, quite often, than funds used by individuals to purchase books from a bookstore to then donate to RORDC. Knowing this, Becky Ahearn and her students used a list of "RORDC Recommended Book Titles" and created their own book order forms, listing each title at RORDC's discounted rate of $2.75 per book. Students then spent the next several weeks acting as "children's booksellers" by providing friends and family members with the opportunity to purchase books from the RORDC book order form, while simultaneously advocating on behalf of the RORDC mission and work. By the end of this amazing campaign, Northwest High School's National Honor Society had raised a whopping $4400.00, which was donated to RORDC for the purchase of all books chosen by NHS students, families, and friends. These funds will purchase over 1600 brand new, high quality books to give to children, ages 6 months to 5 years, in Reach Out and Read clinics. The National Honor Society at Northwest High School is an impressive example of the abilities and impact that young people can have on vital issues such as literacy education. It is my hope that other high school groups and youth organizations in the DC metro area will follow Northwest High School's example and create similar models of philanthropy; Northwest's National Honor Society has shown how much good can be done in this city to support local nonprofits. A very special thank you to Northwest National Honor Society Advisor, Becky Ahearn, and President, Richard Sun, for coordinating this effort and energizing such an amazing group of young Reach Out and Read of Metro DC advocates!
Walter Reed Army Medical Center: D.C.'s First Reach Out and Read Program for Military Families!
In the fall of 2008, Reach Out and Read, partnering with Strategic Resources Inc. (SRI), was awarded a Department of Defense (DoD) contract to implement a one-year pilot project on pediatric early literacy for children of military families. This funding allowed ROR/SRI to start-up 20 new ROR Sites on military bases in both the U.S and overseas, greatly expanding support to military families worldwide. Reach Out and Read of Metro DC was pleased to welcome one of those sites, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, into their coalition. The pilot project includes implementing ROR at all the new Sites and training health care providers in the ROR model. The training is standardized for all clinics, and also includes information on the effects of stress (associated with deployment and a parent's return from deployment with visible/invisible wounds) in very young children. The goal is to give a medical provider the opportunity and tools to start a conversation with the parents about the developmental health of their child. In a military family, this may be one of the best times to assess how the stresses of deployments may be affecting a child. ROR will assist Walter Reed and other military clinics in recruiting and training volunteers for the program. Additionally, Walter Reed, as a participant in the pilot project, received materials (child-size table, chairs, and bookcase) to help them create literacy-rich waiting rooms. Prior to the opening of these 20 sites, ROR had 13 programs on military bases, serving more than 28,000 children and their families annually. While this is a sizable number, it represented only about 7% of all eligible children of military families worldwide, whereas ROR is currently serving 25% of the national target population. With the addition of the 20 new sites, ROR is now serving an additional 63,000 children and approximately 25% of all the eligible children of military families worldwide. Medical Director Dr. Andrea Anderson welcomed Walter Reed into the RORDC coalition with a specialized training in late 2008. Since then, Walter Reed Army Medical Center has been carrying the important mission of RORDC successfully forward by providing hundreds of brand new books to Washington, D.C. military families, as well as important advice about sharing books with children on a daily basis. We are so thrilled to have Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Pediatrics department join our coalition. Washington, D.C. military families deserve the very best in pediatric primary care, and Reach Out and Read is proud to be a part of that much-deserved service!
We Need Books!
Help Reach Out and Read of Metro DC create literacy rich environments in health centers by donating your gently used children’s books for pediatric reading corners. For many of our young patients, the books at the doctor's office are their only exposure to children’s literature before they start school. Guidelines for Donations: Our greatest need is for books for pre-school children
High demand for “board books” with brightly colored pictures for infants and toddlers
Books in languages other than English are particularly welcome
Used books are accepted only if covers and pages are intact, clean, and readable
We cannot accept encyclopedias, textbooks, or books with religious or violent themes or sensitive issues like divorce, abuse or death. E-mail jyoung@dclearns.org to find out more about making a donation.
Volunteers Needed
Volunteer opportunities are available at a variety of Reach Out and Read Metro DC locations. Volunteer readers are an important part of the Reach Out and Read program. Trained volunteer readers are placed in pediatric waiting rooms to read with children and model reading for their parents. Volunteer readers also answer non-medical questions that parents may have about reading and literacy, provide information about libraries and other local reading programs, and make appropriate referrals to illiterate parents. Volunteer readers are most needed mornings and afternoons, but some health centers also host readings during evening hours. Volunteers are also needed to deliver and organize books and for special events. Interested in volunteering? E-mail info@reachoutandreaddc.org.
Reach Out and Read of Metro DC Participating Health Centers
Unity Health Care--Upper Cardozo Center; Unity Health Care--East of The River Center; Unity Health Care--Woodridge Center; Unity Health Care--Anacostia; Unity Health Care--Southwest Health Center; Unity Health Care--Hunt Place Center; Unity Health Care--Congress Heights; Unity Health Care--Walker Jones Health Center; Unity Health Care--Brentwood Square; Unity Health Care--Good Hope Road; Unity Health Care--Stanton Road; Mary's Center for Women and Children; Mary's Center at Kennedy Street; Children's Health Center-Adams Morgan; Children's Health Center-Children's National Medical Center; Children's Health Center-Shaw; Children's Health Center-Good Hope Road; Children's Health Center-MLK, Jr. Avenue; Children’s Health Project of DC (Mobile); Washington Pediatric Associates; Columbia Road Health Center; Georgetown University Kids Mobile Medical Clinic; Georgetown University Hospital Department of Pediatrics; HOYA Clinic at DC Village; La Clinica del Pueblo; Community of Hope Health Services; Howard University Hospital; Chartered Family Health Center; Fort Lincoln Family Medicine Center; Community Clinic, Inc.; Takoma Park Pediatrics; Whitman Walker Clinic Elizabeth Taylor Center; Bread for the City; Walter Reed Army Medical Center; Mary's Center-Flower Ave
Advisory Board Members
Gabrielle Aponte Henkel- Board President Andrea Anderson, MD-Medical Director
Upper Cardozo Health Center
Unity Health Care, Inc. David Trevor Riggen - Board Treasurer
American Red Cross Cheryl Focht, MD, MPH
Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care Tracy L. Goodman
The Children's Law Center Nicole V. Lang, MD
Washington Pediatric Associates, PC Nicole L. Reid-Board Secretary
National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies Rachael Walker
Reading Rockets David Niersbach
Save the Children Judy Hijikata
The Reading Connection
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