Eileen’s three children entered the Reading Enriches All Children (REACH) program upon entrance into the shelter. Every week for one hour, REACH volunteers provide a lively story time called a Read-Aloud to inspire the children to become lifelong readers. REACH now offers periodic parent workshops to teach the importance of a literacy rich home environment and how they can share stories and books with their children even if they do not feel they are strong readers themselves. Volunteers share their love of reading and provide the children with two new books and a bag of school supplies to keep at each session. The goal is that the family will take away a library of new books and the knowledge that reading is important for their family to become strong.
Since 1998, Reading Enriches All Children has assisted over 8000 children by giving them access to books and inspiration to become readers. REACH currently operates twelve Read-Aloud story times at family shelters throughout Southside Hampton Roads. We also provide free books at the Children’s Museum REACH Reading Room, and The Five-Points Community Farm Market and to community partners who work with at-risk children and youth through our book giveaway initiative, Growing Readers.
Children who are homeless have special needs. They typically change schools multiple times within the year and suffer through a chronic state of family crisis. They are unable to obtain library cards due to their highly transient lifestyle. Parents are not always able to maintain a regular family routine and often unable to read to their children. This creates huge gaps in the children’s learning and REACH wants to bridge the gap by teaching the joy and value of reading aloud and sharing books.
 REACH relies on a dedicated team of volunteers who commit to one hour a month. Volunteers come from a variety of professional backgrounds; they are accountants, business leaders, college students and retirees. We fully train and place them on a team with co-workers, their faith community, a civic group or as a members of an ensemble team. REACH and our dedicated volunteer corps offer a source of stability when families have been in survival mode. We use books as our anchor and a dedicated hour of fun with books to promote our passion of reading at each shelter that we serve every week.
Eileen says the program has had a dramatic effect on her children’s outlook on reading and on books in general. “They ask me to read-aloud to them and I didn’t realize how much this means to help them grow.
My kids are also reading to each other. That is amazing to me!” Shelter staff regularly reports how they “catch” the children reading their new REACH books and want to show off their read- aloud skills to anyone who will listen.
REACH serves approximately 500-600 children a year through the shelter program and hundreds more through Growing Readers. This year we have shared over 2000 stories, trained 164 new volunteers and provided our area’s most vulnerable citizens a hand-up to a brighter future through reading, one story at a time.
To volunteer one hour a month, donate books, funding or school supplies, call REACH at 757-627-4722, or visit www.reachreads.org and give a child a hand-up through reading!
How you can help:
Please consider a financial contribution to support the efforts of REACH . Individual contributions of $500 or more, or business contributions of $1000 or more are eligible for Virginia State Tax Credits where the donor receives 40% of their contribution in tax credit on their 2009 VA State Tax Return. Must be a Virginia resident or business owner to qualify. To find out more, call 627-4722. For more info, visit www.reachreads.org
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