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About Reach Out and Read Washington, DC
Did you know?
• 58% of DC area children from 0 to 5 years live in poverty,
• 72% of these children are not read to aloud on a daily basis,
• In 2009 ROR DC distributed more than 50,000 books to 29,000 children throughout the DC metro region.
• 11 published medical journals have found that children that participate and complete the ROR program score higher on vocabulary tests. |
Welcome!Reach Out and Read of Metro DC (ROR DC) promotes the love of books and reading to children at an early age to establish the early foundations of literacy. Our mission is to prepare DC area children to be successful in school and reading. We provide:
• New and used books to children 0 to 6 years old
• Doctors’ advice to parents on the importance of reading aloud
• Volunteers to read aloud to children in pediatric waiting rooms There are 35 Health Centres in the DC metro area that participate in the ROR program. They are listed here (on the national website of Reach Out and Read).
Coalition Announcements
We are currently looking for volunteers to read aloud to children in any one of our 35 sites. Next to that, ROR DC is always in need of gently used books. Interested? Read on!
Bring Us Your Books!
Do you have gently used children’s books? You can donate them to us! For many of our young patients, the books at the reading corners in the doctor's office are their only exposure to children’s literature before they start school. Help us create literacy rich environments in health centers. You can for instance collect books at your school or with a church group.Guidelines for Donations
We need books for pre-school children the most. We have a high demand for “board books” with brightly colored pictures for infants and toddlers. Bi-lingual books, especially in Spanish, are particularly welcome. Used books are accepted if covers and pages are intact, clean, and readable. We do not accept encyclopedias, textbooks, or books with religious or violent themes or sensitive issues like divorce, abuse or death.
Please e-mail Dawn Thomas at dthomas@dclearns.org to donate children's books.
Do You Want To Volunteer?
If you volunteer with ROR DC, you help prepare children for success in school and in reading. At the moment our biggest need is for volunteers to read aloud to children in a pediatric reading corner. This is an excellent way to get involved in your community. At the same time, you work on qualities you need in your (future) working environment, like speaking in public, connecting with kids, reacting to the unexpected. And the best thing is: reading to children is great fun.Do you like working with Pre-K children and share your love of reading with them? Reading aloud happens on weekdays, on mornings, afternoons and evenings. At some clinics we need you on Saturday mornings. You are flexible in scheduling your hours, depending on your availability and the needs of the clinic. Before you start, we give you an orientation and training session. What we ask from you is proof of a (negative) TB test and a background check. These two things are required by DC Laws in order to work with young children. Apart from reading volunteers, we also need help to
• organize book donation drives and delivering books
• promote ROR DC at community events
• plan fundraising events If you would like to help out in any way, please fill-out the ROR DC volunteer application, which is available here. Once you have completed the application, we will inform you about the upcoming volunteer orientation and training session. More questions about volunteering? E-mail us at info@reachoutandreaddc.org.
For more information about Reach Out and Read, you can take a look at the national ROR website.
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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