SRI awarded HRsolutions
Reach Out and Read Task Order
Reach Out and Read Task Order
SRI has been awarded an HRsolutions task order to pilot a defense appropriations initiative that will focus on providing training to pediatric healthcare personnel who work directly with children during the well-child appointment. This training will emphasize the importance of literacy and strategies to promote books and reading, culminating in giving each child a developmentally and culturally appropriate book to take home after each well-child appointment. In addition, training will also be provided to volunteers who model reading out loud to children in the waiting areas.
SRI’s subcontractor for this effort, Reach Out and Read (ROR), is a national, non-profit organization that promotes early literacy by making books and reading aloud part of pediatric primary care. The program was founded in 1989 at Boston Medical Center. Since that time ROR has trained more than 40,000 doctors and nurses to provide guidance to parents about reading aloud and to give developmentally appropriate books to their young children as a part of the well-child visit. The program operates in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico and is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. More than 2.4 million children participate in ROR annually.
The FY 07 Defense Appropriations Bill approved monies for pilot projects to assess the feasibility, advisability, and utility of encouraging pediatric early literacy among the children of members of the Armed Forces. This task order will establish programs at 20 military treatment facilities (MTF) currently serving hundreds of families.