HILARY DRUMMOND
Member
Clinic Director,
Roaring Fork Family Practice
Carbondale, CO
An independent Colorado nonprofit using an evidence-based national model for early literacy success
WHAT WE DO
Raising A Reader Aspen to Parachute provides programs that foster a love of books and the oral language skills, vocabulary and print awareness necessary for reading success. Our strategy encourages read-aloud time and an abundance of positive verbal interaction among parents and their children. And, yes, we provide the books, too! Our red bags with four books per bag go home with 1,400 children every week.
OUR PROGRAMS
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Provides 1,400 children under the age of six with a weekly book bag with four age-appropriate books.
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Books are kept for a week, returned and then replaced with another four books.
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Children participate in 100 classrooms from Aspen to Parachute.
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Parent talks and discussions reach more than 1,000 parents annually.
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Busy parents can access short instructional videos on the organization's private YouTube channel.
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E-newsletters keep parents informed on strategies and the latest research on literacy and oral language development.
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Parents improve their ability to use read-aloud sessions and everyday conversations to increase their child's language skills, awareness of the larger world, and knowledge of alphabet and numbers.
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Weekly neighborhood sessions for low-income families whose children are not enrolled in preschool.
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Each weekly session includes storytime, an activity for the children, guidance for parents, and weekly book bags for each child.
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Parents learn the importance of building a home environment full of positive oral language interaction and books.
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Introduces library resources to children and their families.
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Each Raising A Reader classroom takes a field trip to their local library in April – 50 field trips scheduled annually.
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Children receive their first library card attached to a new, blue Raising A Reader library book bag – a gift for each child to keep. They then begin checking out books!
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Mothers have an opportunity to meet in small groups to discuss their concerns, hopes and dreams for their children.
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Meetings include a topic focus that relates to positive parent engagement and literacy.
HOW TO GET YOUR CHILD INVOLVED
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Enroll your child in a Raising A Reader participating school or ask your school to contact us about starting Raising A Reader.
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Connect with Bolsitas Rojas/Little Red Bag Club at local libraries. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
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Contact us at suzanne@rar4kids.org about other options that might work for your family.
What families are saying about Raising A Reader
We love the bonding time and the journey for her active imagination.
We’ve been a part of RAR since preschool. My son has always been excited to bring home each new bag and read together. He “read” an entire book to me recently… PROUD!!
I really enjoy that she is excited to open the bag each week. She is proud to share the books she gets from school.
He is now so proud of his own blue library book bag with his library card attached. He takes it with us every time we go to the library. Great program!
He gets so excited to see what books are in the red bag. Although it can take a while to get through some stories, it is okay because we talk about the book the entire time. He will ask questions and one of my favorites is: Mommy imagine if…
