About Us

Reach Out and Read is a national, non-profit organization that promotes early literacy by making books a routine part of pediatric care.

“Reach Out and Read started as a simple solution to an obvious problem: waiting rooms without books. Reading aloud was important for young children, and pediatricians had a special opportunity to reach their parents. It was a patently good idea. But if it had been nothing more than that, it would have withered away. Instead, ROR has grown, nurtured by the passionate and inspired efforts of many-educators, doctors, volunteers, parents, corporations, foundations and politicians.”
Robert Needlman, MD
ROR Co-founder

Our Mission

Reach Out and Read makes literacy promotion a standard part of pediatric care so that children grow up with books and a love of reading.

Reach Out and Read trains doctors and nurses to advise parents about the importance of reading aloud and to give books to children at pediatric check-ups from six months to five years of age. A special focus is placed on children growing up in poverty. By building on the unique relationship between parents and medical providers, Reach Out and Read helps families and communities cultivate early literacy skills so that children enter school prepared to succeed at reading.

Our History

In 1989, Reach Out and Read was founded at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center) through a collaboration between pediatricians, family physicians, nurses and early childhood educators.

As a result of their work, physicians and educators realized that pediatricians and nurse practitioners were in a unique position to promote early literacy for two reasons:

Pediatricians, family physicians and nurses regularly interact with young children and their parents at well-child checkups.

Parents trust and respect the guidance that they receive from pediatricians, family physicians and nurses. When doctors and nurses discuss the importance of reading in an exam-room setting, parents realize the significance of the message.

Reach Out and Read was originally based on a simple but powerful premise: encourage parents to read regularly to their children and give them the tools (the books) to do so.

Our Organization

ROR National Center
The Reach Out and Read National Center is affiliated with the Boston University School of Medicine, the Boston Medical Center Department of Pediatrics, and the Boston Medical Center Department of Family Medicine.

The National Center provides training and ongoing technical assistance as well as start-up and sustainability funding to ROR programs and coalitions throughout the country. The National Center also produces original materials for ROR programs and serves as a resource centerfor research related to early literacy interventions. The ROR Office of External Affairs is actively involved in advocacy on state and federal levels.
Contact the National Center

Programs
ROR Programs are located in a wide variety of medical settings where pediatric primary care is provided. Each program is championed by a ROR medical director and on-site coordinator and follows the program model.
Find an ROR Program

Coalitions
ROR Coalitions unite multiple ROR programs on either state or regional levels. Currently, 26 coalitions throughout the country have formal contractual relationships with the ROR National Center.
Find an ROR Coalition

Current Statistics

ROR serves 3.3 million children annually.

ROR distributes over 5.4 million books each year.

To date, more than 50,000 pediatricians, nurses, residents and health professionals have been trained in the ROR model of early-literacy promotion.

Reach Out and Read is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

There are more than 3,797 ROR programs based on the ROR model at clinics, hospitals, and health centers in all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia.