Reach Out and Read knows the power of shared reading to help build strong foundations in a child’s life by supporting early literacy and healthy parent-child relationships. Our work doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It exists in the nexus of health care, early literacy and family support. When integrated into routine pediatric well child visits and brought to scale, Reach Out and Read can powerfully support community-wide goals to strengthen and improve the health and development of all young children in the community.
In Oregon, Reach Out and Read is partnering with the Blue Mountain Early Learning Hub and many committed private and public community partners to sustainably strengthen systems of care and education for young children and their families in Morrow, Umatilla and Union counties. The commitment to improving healthcare access and outcomes for pregnant people and children ages 0-2 by community partners across the region is inspiring.
Integrating early literacy into routine early childhood preventive visits is one of several goals that Upstream Initiative partners have identified. Reach Out and Read is well on the way to expanding the number of health care clinics integrating early literacy into well-child visits in the Blue Mountain region. This expansion would not be possible without the collaborative efforts to identify, secure and braid private and public funding.
For more details on this exciting community project, check out these two articles:
reachoutandread.me/eastoregonian
reachoutandread.me/rightnoworegon
Questions? Contact Shannon Blood, Associate Director of Policy & Partnerships at shannon.blood@reachoutandread.org.