Next Chapter

Beginning Our Next Chapter

Shaping the future of pediatric healthcare.

Over the past three decades, Reach Out and Read has grown into a national operation with significant impact: We operate in more than 6,100 medical clinics across the U.S. and serve nearly 4.5 million children and their families. While our accomplishments have been impressive, our greatest moments lie ahead of us.

As we look forward to our next 30 years, we now aspire to harness our three decades of experience, our proven model, and our extensive network into an even more powerful force for change, recognizing the parent-child relationship as a foundational component of early success. This is our Next Chapter.

Our Vision

Reach Out and Read will maximize the potential of pediatric primary care to promote the positive interactions that foster healthy development during the critical early years of a child’s life.

We imagine a future in which:

  • Pediatric healthcare providers support positive, language-rich interactions through early literacy promotion as a standard of care
  • Parents and caregivers are well supported as they engage their young children as part of the daily routine and understand the crucial role they play in laying the foundation for healthy development
  • All children grow up with books and reading, with talking and with singing in the arms of those who love them and care for them

The Next Chapter Forum

With a commitment to bringing our experience and the strengths of our network to partnerships with other mission-driven organizations working within and around pediatric primary care, the Reach Out and Read Next Chapter was officially launched at a Forum on November 6, 2019.

Forum
Long Term Goals
  • Enactment of policies that drive change in attitude, practice and funding
  • Widescale adoption and funding of feasible and impactful best practice
  • Physicians equipped with skills to effectively support strong caregiver-child relationships
Our Strategy

Working as part of a movement that aims to make the promotion of positive, language-rich interactions the standard of care, our Next Chapter strategy involves four central priorities:

  • Create momentum for change within primary pediatric care
  • Equip clinicians with skills that effectively promote early relational health, particularly through early literacy strategies
  • Craft and implement a policy agenda to advance strategies delivered in the pediatric primary care setting that promote early brain development, early literacy and school readiness
  • Implement a research agenda to optimize the integration of promotion of early relational health through early literacy into pediatric well child visits