Strengthening the culture of reading together at home for all families – not simply those living in vulnerable communities­—is at the core of our mission. However, we were founded with the goal of delivering our evidence-based early literacy as a strategy for closing the academic achievement gap facing the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable communities, those with the highest rates of family poverty, and lowest rates of academic achievement. Fulfilling this goal motivates hundreds of individual and institutional donors to make gifts of nearly $1 million to Raising A Reader MA every year.

Over the years, early childhood educators from around Massachusetts have contacted us to find out how they can bring Raising A Reader MA to their programs. They are often disappointed to learn that because they are not in our priority communities there would be fundraising involved on their part to help cover the average cost per child per year to bring Raising A Reader MA to their program and community.  This barrier made it impossible for communities outside of the most vulnerable to work with us.

This all changed in Fall 2011 when we received a call from Patricia DeSiata, the Family Network Coordinator in Plymouth. Tricia had an interested funder, and was determined to find a way to add Raising A Reader MA to the early literacy toolkit available to the families she served through community-based playgroups.

This motivation was exactly what we needed to jumpstart our new Satellite communities model. Developed in partnership with Tricia and her team, this is a train the trainer program that brings Raising A Reader MA to early education programs with less intense need than those in our priority communities. The intervention model is the same (hyperlink to Our program). The major differences are that Raising A Reader MA staff are neither leading workshops, nor providing the same level of ongoing support to the implementation partners.

On average, children in Plymouth seem to have fewer risk factors than their Massachusetts peers: 65% of children score proficient or above on the 3^rd grade reading MCAS, compared to 61% statewide; 7.5% of children ages 0-5 are living below the federal poverty line compared to 14.7% state average. Only .9% of children enrolled in the Plymouth Public Schools system have a first language other than English, compared to 16.7% in Massachusetts. As the Plymouth Family Network and Coordinator Family and Community Engagement (CFCE) Coordinator, Tricia’s main task was to reach those families with young children who are not engaged with early care and education programs and who may be more isolated from the services that will help prepare their children for future success.

Beginning in January 2012, Tricia launched her test of the Satellite model. She used Raising A Reader MA in two ways.

1. First, the red book bags and parent workshops were integrated into the playgroups that they run in various locations across the community. These regularly scheduled events gave parents an opportunity to attend structured activities with their children while learning skills that they can incorporate into their routines.
2. In addition, Tricia’s team provided technical support to a childcare center in Plymouth where nearly all the children receive vouchers for childcare services from the state of Massachusetts.

Over the six-month test period (January – June 2012), we served the families of 94 children in Plymouth, and we anticipate expanding to another 30 families this year. Family Network staff have also indicated that they want to start planning all of their activities through  Raising A Reader MA’s early literacy lens.

The Satellite model was a success. In addition to the families of nearly 100 children receiving Raising A Reader MA, family surveys show that 97% of participating families report they are now sharing books three or more times a week after Raising A Reader MA workshops, compared to 86% before. What’s more, these families were employing more Dialogic Reading strategies. For example, nearly 100% of parents were asking open-ended questions that started with “what?” and “why?” after participating in Raising A Reader MA workshops.

Our experience in Plymouth has laid the groundwork for our expansion to other Satellite communities- four more came on board in late August and our partners in Somerville are transitioning to becoming a Satellite given the changing demographics and improving academic outcomes of the Somerville Public Schools. Stay tuned to learn more about these new, exciting partnerships that strengthen the culture of reading together.