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Current Programs
About Our Programs - Neighborhood Literacy Drop-In Centers - Goodwill Family Enrichment Center - Youth SES Program - Reading Right Now - Teen Peer Tutoring - After School Youth Tutoring Services - Enterprise Charter School Youth Mentoring - Mommy & Me ESL Storytime
 Reading Right Now Family Literacy Program
Studies have long concluded that illiteracy is intergenerational and that value placed on reading in the home better prepares students to be successful in school. In fact, illiteracy is viewed as the greatest threat to our children's future, according to a new survey commissioned by TD Waterhouse USA. The survey reveals that fully one-third of all Americans, when asked, identified illiteracy (33%) as more pressing than social issues such as poverty (24%), healthcare (23%) and the environment (15%). Furthermore, lack of access to books was recognized as the leading cause of illiteracy in children, by one out of five Americans (20%). In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Education, 61% of low-income families have no books in their homes for their children. Additionally, over 80% of the preschool and after-school programs serving at-risk children have no books at all. Reading Right Now (RRN) is a project that encourages reading to children beginning at infancy.
The RRN packet will eventually be distributed to every new mother in Erie County, starting with those of Women's and Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, New York. The packet includes a children’s book, Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise, a library card application for the new mother and other materials to enrich early childhood literacy through family effort. In the first year of this ongoing project, we served 1000 mothers and their babies. Of these 1000 women, 900 were low income.
RRN includes information on how and why it is necessary to read to your newborn, provides children’s book recommendations, and information on how to contact Literacy Volunteers for additional help and resources. This initiative, spearheaded by Literacy Volunteers, is assisted by EPIC (Every Person Influences Children), and funded in part by the Children’s Foundation, Fisher Price and the HSBC Foundation.
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