Awards

Awards

We are proud to have been recognized with these awards, prizes, and endorsements.

Prizes

  • Nicholas Kristof Holiday Impact Prize, 2019

    Reach Out and Read was selected as a winner of New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof’s 2019 Holiday Impact Prize, supported by Focusing Philanthropy.

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  • David M. Rubenstein Prize, 2013

    This top literacy prize from the Library of Congress was awarded in recognition of Reach Out and Read’s “groundbreaking advancement of literacy.” The David M. Rubenstein Prize rewards organizations that have been “doing exemplary, innovative and easily replicable work over a sustained period of time.”

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  • UNESCO Confucius Prize For Literacy, 2007

    Selected from an international field of organizations working in “Literacy and Health,” Reach Out and Read received this prestigious prize, given annually for displaying outstanding merit in literacy, achieving particularly effective results and promoting innovative approaches.

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Awards

  • Silver 2nd Annual Anthem Award, 2022

    Chosen from a pool of more than 2,000 entries, the #RORPodcast has won Silver in the Health category for the 2nd Annual Anthem Awards. At Reach Out and Read, we dream of a world in which every child is read to every day. The podcast focuses on the belief that reading aloud with children helps with brain development, builds strong family bonds, and creates happy and healthy children and a healthier society. The podcast is an extension of the organization’s work nationwide.

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  • Carle Angel Honor, 2014

    Given by the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art to celebrate individuals whose creative vision and dedication are an inspiration to everyone who values picture books and their role in arts education and literacy. Reach Out and Read received this award for its “tireless promotion of literacy and school readiness.”

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  • American Hospital Association Award of Honor, 2013

    Presented at the Association’s Annual Meeting in Washington D.C., the Award of Honor is given as one of five American Hospital Association Leadership Awards to organizations and individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the health and well-being of the people through leadership on a major health policy or social initiative.

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  • Dale Richmond/Justin Coleman Award, 2008

    The American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics conferred this award on Reach Out and Read for “outstanding achievement in the field of child development.”

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  • Fast Company’s Social Capitalist Award, 2008

    Recognizing Reach Out and Read for outstanding performance by entrepreneurial organizations in the nonprofit sector, and honoring our innovative model that effectively reaches parents of young children.

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Significant Endorsements

  • American Academy of Pediatrics

    The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) officially endorsed the Reach Out and Read model in 1998. In 2014, the AAP issued a landmark policy statement promoting literacy as “an essential component of pediatric primary care.” Significantly, this statement realized a long-term aim of Reach Out and Read to integrate early literacy promotion as a routine practice in well-child checkups.

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  • American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP)

    Reach Out and Read’s model is endorsed by NAPNAP, and we have formed an alliance with the AAFP; both organizations advise and support the use of our model by their members.

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Selected Media

  • The New York Times Sunday Review, 2016

    An article in The New York Times Sunday Review in August 2016 titled “The Good News About Educational Inequality” cites research showing that, despite difficult economic times, the kindergarten readiness gap between children from low- and high-income families is, in fact, narrowing. More importantly, the authors credit the Reach Out and Read program as a main factor in this achievement.

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  • NBC’s Today Show: Hope to It, 2014

    Viewers of the NBC News Hope to It series learned about the work of Reach Out and Read through a feature on Dr. Carolyn Boone, a Richmond, VA, pediatrician, who developed a love of reading as a foster child. The film crew joined Dr. Boone in her exam room and filmed her giving books to children and talking with parents about the importance of reading aloud. “Books are just as important as immunizations!” says Dr. Boone.

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  • Nicholas Kristof 2016 & 2013/14

    Acclaimed New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Nicholas Kristof has researched thousands of nonprofit organizations, and is impressed with the work of Reach Out and Read. In his column in The New York Times on November 17, 2016, he encourages his readers to each do what we can in our own lives to make sure that the needy aren’t forgotten in these uncertain times and says: “I can support Reach Out and Read, an outstanding program that helps at-risk children learn to read.”

    In the book A Path Appears that he co-wrote with Sheryl WuDunn, he describes our program as “an excellent example of a cost-effective, evidence-based program that helps kids in a crucial window of development.” In his New York Times Holiday Giving Guide, Reach Out and Read is recommended as “a simple intervention [with] far-reaching effects.”

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  • New York Times, 2014

    A June 2014 article in The New York Times, “Pediatrics Group to Recommend Reading Aloud to Children from Birth” covers the announcement of the Annual Academy of Pediatrics policy on literacy promotion and portrays the Reach Out and Read model as pivotal in developments in early childhood literacy.

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