We are Better Together — Celebrating partnerships and success serving the families of Greater Boston.
On February 25, 2020 Raising A Reader MA hosted the Better Together Winter Soiree. The event was held to celebrate its strategic partnership with Boston Children’s Hospital through the Collaboration for Community Health and bring together other leaders in the life science and healthcare community to discuss and support the connection between early literacy and health outcomes.
Through the Collaboration for Community Health, and just halfway through the three-year agreement, RAR-MA has expanded its reach in Greater Boston by 14%. Moreover, as RAR-MA Executive Director, Christine Ward, shared at the event, “our program staff has an excess of 1,000 children at various partners in Boston that are ready for our program – the only thing stopping us is additional funding.”
Dr. Shari Nethersole, Executive Director for the Boston Children’s Office of Community Health, shared more about the Collaboration’s mission and how Raising A Reader MA impacts fits in. Beyond building early literacy skills for children to be school-ready, Raising A Reader MA helps foster positive childhood experiences – defined by the World Health Organization as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” The true impact that comes from the bond formed between a child and an adult caregiver during shared reading goes much deeper than learning new words.
In addition to the evening’s honoree, Raising A Reader MA welcomed Dr. Steve Gullans as a featured guest author. As a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, TED speaker and co-author of Evolving Ourselves, Dr. Gullans touched on the importance of educating society’s youngest to be successful in the impending life sciences revolution, for which he draws a parallel to the dot com boom.
