One in three U.S. children entering kindergarten lack the early reading skills needed for success in school. Raising A Reader's mission is to engage parents in a routine of daily book sharing with their children from birth to age five to foster healthy brain development, parent-child bonding, and early literacy skills critical for kindergarten readiness and continued school and life success.
In 2002, a group of community partners launched the program in San Francisco. Raising A Reader became a community program of the United Way of the Bay Area in 2003, and expanded to Alameda County in 2007. Since its local launch, the programs have grown almost ten-fold, now serving close to 9,000 children each year in over 450 classrooms and other child care facilities in the two counties.
Raising A Reader San Francisco and Alameda Counties is a local affiliate it's parent organization, Raising A Reader National.
