Programs

I was surprised by how quickly reading to their younger relatives caught on with our students!  Before the Read to Me Project, our students did not read to their younger siblings.  After a year of participating in the project, they felt comfortable with the idea.  Now that we’re in our third year, reading to their younger relatives has become part of their home culture.     

I am a reading intervention teacher, and my most reluctant reader is now an avid reader because of Read to Me.  She thrives on helping others. Being her brother’s teacher at home made reading important to her.  It has also improved her own reading along the way!  Thank you, Read to Me Project; you are helping families in a myriad of ways!

– Rebecca Bishop, Reading Specialist/teacher

The concept for the program is simple and direct. Read to Me Project uniquely reaches pre-kindergarten aged children in no/low literacy homes. The prevention-based program delivers early literacy experiences to those little ones through their older siblings. The students are taught how babies learn and how the brain (in simple terms) works. As the sibling bonds deepen through the special shared times with a book, the students take pride in their role as a mentor to their younger sibling and may develop leadership skills. As emerging readers themselves, students and their teachers report reading improvements. Eventually, many of the children in Read to Me Project will grow up to have children of their own and will be reading to them – thereby, breaking the generational cycle of low-literacy among underserved families.

Parents are also hearing about the importance of providing early literacy experiences to their newborns and that 85% of the brain developments by age five.

To understand the power of the Read to Me Project, imagine a mom who doesn’t read herself, so she is not able to find a doctor’s name on a directory, or understand a letter from the landlord. She knows how incredibly powerful and important reading is in our society. She’s doing dishes at the sink, and she hears her 4 th grader reading to her baby. She knows something utterly transformational is happening. The Read to Me Project gives hope to every family we touch. We’ve even heard of moms who pick up more English by sitting with the kids while they read.

Read to Me Project is moving the needle. The program has significantly increased the number of student participants and their little ones year-over-year, going from 110 in 2011 to nearly 5,000 in 2019. Schools recognize the value of providing the program through the classrooms and demand continues to build. There are more than 400 low performing 4 th , 5 th and 6 th grade classrooms in Monterey County. Each year Read to Me Project staff strives to say “yes” to as many schools as possible each year. Annual capacity reflects funding provided by schools, grants and donations.