General Overview
Raising A Reader is a pre-literacy take-home book bag program offered to child care providers and their agencies across the nation. Raising A Reader rotates red bags filled with award-winning books into children's homes on a weekly basis. In the average program a child is exposed to approximately 100 books per year. Local implementers are trained in interactive "read-aloud" techniques and parent engagement. Celebrating and empowering parents as their child's first teacher is a cornerstone of the program. Raising A Reader is a sustainable, economical program that benefits low-income families with children ages 0-5 across the country. With nearly half of all U.S. children entering kindergarten lacking the early reading skills needed for success in school, Raising A Reader's vision is that one day all children will enter kindergarten in love with the printed page and ready to learn to read.

Mission
Raising A Reader's mission is to engage parents in a routine of daily "book cuddling" with their children from birth to age five to foster healthy brain development, parent-child bonding, and early literacy skills critical for school success.

What is the goal of Raising A Reader nationally and in Marin County?
The Raising A Reader goal is to build a powerful pre-literacy program within the homes of children ages 0-5. In Marin County, Parent Services Project uses the Raising A Reader program to work with child care providers to engage families and strengthen the attachment between parent/caregiver and child. The Raising A Reader program addresses a national crisis: one-in-three children enter kindergarten lacking basic pre-reading skills. As a result, a high percentage of these children never develop strong reading skills. Raising A Reader works to substantially increase the number of low-income families that lap-read with their preschool children frequently and routinely each week.

How does Raising A Reader work? Raising A Reader is a "take-home" book bag program, implemented through child care settings via a ready-to-use Classroom Kit. The unique design and delivery system makes this pre-literacy program easy and enjoyable for even busy, stressed families. The program creates magic that inspires families of all literacy levels, including those who speak limited English, to engage with their child around a book and fall in love with reading.

Bright red book bags filled with beautiful picture books are rotated weekly among families. Over 200 literary-acclaimed books featuring appealing artwork, age-appropriate language and multicultural themes are part of this program. Children bring home the red bags and enthusiastically draw their families into sharing books with them. Program results are very impressive. For more information on national results, go to www.raisingareader.org.

The Classroom Kit includes training in "read aloud" strategies for child care providers and parents as well as additional tools for fun engagement tools that include our award-winning Read Aloud: Share a Book With Me video, available in nine languages, for each family to keep, and a matching bright blue "My Library Book Bag" that is given to each child to keep for frequent trips to the library. The program's impact is sustained over time through on-going training opportunities for participants and linkages to libraries.

Raising A Reader in Marin County
Parent Services Project (PSP) in San Rafael, CA began implementing the Raising A Reader program in Marin County child care centers and family child care provider homes in January 2005. PSP and its implementing partners have reached over 115 classrooms and 3,000 children with the Raising A Reader program.

To bring the Raising A Reader program to Marin County at no or little cost to providers or to sites, funding has been provided by a federal grant (Early Learning Opportunities Act - ELOA), United Way of the Bay Area, the Bella Vista Foundation, First 5 Marin, Autodesk and Wells Fargo Bank. We now sustain the program with the generous support of the Fullerton Family Foundation.

How can a child care center or family home care provider participate in the Raising A Reader program?
Child care centers and family home care providers who are interested in bringing the Raising A Reader program to their site must complete an application. Priority is given to sites serving low-income and/or limited English speaking families. If you are interested in participating in the Raising A Reader program, please contact Amy Griffin-Vieira for an application to be mailed or faxed to you. Once you receive the application, complete and return it to Amy Griffin-Vieira (see contact information below).

Contact Information
Amy Griffin-Vieira
Raising A Reader Coordinator - Marin County
Phone Number: 415-454-1870
Fax Number: 415-454-1752
Online Form
Address: Parent Services Project
79 Belvedere Street #101
San Rafael, CA 94901

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