JMEmerge is the Proud Sponsor of Reach Out and Read

Reach Out and Read make literacy promotion a standard part of pediatric care so that children grow up with books and a love of reading.

Reach Out and Read trains doctors and nurses to advise parents about the importance of reading aloud and to give books to children at pediatric check-ups from six months to five years of age. A special focus is placed on children growing up in poverty. By building on the unique relationship between parents and medical providers, Reach Out and Read helps families and communities cultivate early literacy skills so that children enter school prepared to succeed at reading.

In 1989, Reach Out and Read was founded at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center) through a collaboration between pediatricians, family physicians, nurses and early childhood educators.

As a result of their work, physicians and educators realized that pediatricians and nurse practitioners were in a unique position to promote early literacy for two reasons:

* Pediatricians, family physicians and nurses regularly interact with young children and their parents at well-child checkups.

* Parents trust and respect the guidance that they receive from pediatricians, family physicians and nurses. When doctors and nurses discuss the importance of reading in an exam-room setting, parents realize the significance of the message. Reach Out and Read was originally based on a simple but powerful premise: encourage parents to read regularly to their children and give them the tools (the books) to do so.

ROR National Center
The Reach Out and Read National Center is affiliated with the Boston University School of Medicine, the Boston Medical Center Department of Pediatrics, and the Boston Medical Center Department of Family Medicine. The National Center provides training and ongoing technical assistance as well as start-up and sustainability funding to ROR programs and coalitions throughout the country. The National Center also produces original materials for ROR programs and serves as a resource center for research related to early literacy interventions. The ROR Office of External Affairs is actively involved in advocacy on state and federal levels