Month: February 2019

If you want to know how well a program is working, it’s best to ask the people who are delivering it every day. That’s why a recent survey of ROR-KC medical consultants at our partner clinics is so heartening.

 
The survey was administered by National Reach Out and Read and covered a variety of topics about the program. 80% of our Kansas City-area respondents said they thought ROR-KC resulted in either most or many of their patients’ families reading more together.

 

Providers felt that urgent matters like food or housing, low literacy skills for caregivers and working multiple jobs or odd hours were the biggest barriers to caregivers sharing books with their children.

 

Best of all, some providers shared stories about their favorite interactions related to the ROR program, like this one:

 

“A child around age five requested a new copy of a book that was given to him at the age of six months because his original copy had worn out from nightly use as a bedtime story. The look on his face when I gave him a fresh copy was memorable!”

 

Thank you to our providers for the great work you do every day!

File this one under best surprise ever.
ROR-KC Executive Director Jenny Horsley was invited to the set of Kansas City Live for National Reading Day, January 23rd. 41 Action News KSHB adopted ROR-KC for its “If You Give a Child a Book” campaign, and donated over 1,300 new books to us earlier in the month (wow!). Jenny thought she was just going to be interviewed about the book donation.
Then, as Crystle Lampitt was interviewing Jenny, co-host Kelly Nyberg walked out with a giant check for $10,000 from the Scripps Howard Foundation (E.W. Scripps is the parent company of 41 Action News and 38 the Spot)!

ROR-KC had been invited to apply for a grant, but it was a national competition, and we had no idea that we’d won. It was a great day for early childhood literacy in KC.

Crystle and Kelly also visited Baby and Child Associates, one of ROR-KC’s partner clinics and read to the children in the waiting room. Thanks to April Baker and Dr. Krista-Nelson Cox for their assistance!
Watch the story, interview and giant check presentation here.

Most months, we post a book recommendation from our Book Coordinator, Janice Dobbs.  She’s spent 18 years curating the collection of developmentally-appropriate books that Reach Out and Read Kansas City provides to 50 medical clinics to hand out at well child visits. She knows books!

 

Here’s her February pick!

 

Skip through the Seasons

Written by Stella Blackstone
Illustrated by Maria Carluccio
Published by Barefoot Books
Age Range: 3-6-years old 

 

Skip Through the Seasons– This is an entertaining “seek and find” paperback book that comes in English and Spanish editions.  The rhyming text is fun to read, and very quickly children will learn to pipe in on the refrain, “what can you see?” This book is chock-full of things to look at and talk about and provides a fun way to teach children about the changing seasons. It is great to read to preschoolers, who will also enjoy independently looking at it as they seek and find objects on each page.  It’s a beautifully illustrated book as well!
 – Janice Dobbs

 

Janice Dobbs has been the Book Coordinator for Reach Out and Read Kansas City for over 18 years. She’s responsible for purchasing, organizing, and managing the delivery of over 82,000 books to our 50 partner clinics.