Raising A Reader

Executive Director: Donna DiFillippo

Website: www.raisingareaderma.org

Launched in Chelsea in March 2006, Raising A Reader is the second initiative that the GreenLight Fund is helping to establish in the Boston area.

Founded at the Center for Venture Philanthropy at the Peninsula Community Foundation in California, Raising A Reader is an early literacy, reading readiness, family bonding program. It engages parents in daily “book cuddling” with their children from birth to age five, to improve healthy brain development, parent-child bonding, and the early literacy skills critical for success in kindergarten and beyond.

Raising A Reader works with a variety of early childcare providers and other partners to rotate bright red bags filled with award-winning children's books into the homes of low-income families. It teaches parents about the importance of regular parent/child book time and read-aloud techniques, and supports them in establishing regular read-aloud routines at home. Raising A Reader focuses on populations where reading aloud is least likely to occur because, among other reasons, parents do not have high levels of literacy or English language skills themselves.