This is excerpted from Steve DiPietro’s Chair of the Board message in Raising A Reader MA’s FYE 2012 Annual Report. You can read the entire annual report online.
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As a parent of a college-age child and lifelong proponent of early childhood literacy, I directly understand the benefits of Raising A Reader MA’s program model – increasing the availability of high quality children’s books AND helping families cultivate regular home reading routines is good for any family living in this busy 21st century. I can think of at least a dozen reasons why family reading time might get cut short – from wanting to get back online to finish something from work or catch up on Facebook, to tending to daily household activities, to wanting more time to pursue and enjoy our own interests.
Both I and the entire Board of Raising A Reader MA understand that the life issues that might limit bedtime stories, although realistic for many families, are insignificant when compared to the issues facing low-income families. I cannot imagine trying to read to my child while juggling several jobs, cobbling together the resources needed to move out of a homeless shelter, or navigating a new country and a new culture as an immigrant. Can you? These economic and social conditions do not make it easy for families to develop, practice, and maintain habits of reading together at home, which adds risk to their children’s futures. It is because of these added pressures that Raising A Reader MA is making a priority of using donor funds – your gifts – to expand the number and quality of services available to children and families living in the most vulnerable communities in the Commonwealth.
Because we believe so passionately that early literacy and education are critical to the development and success of EVERY child, Raising A Reader MA is developing a five-year plan to guide our expansion into a majority of the Governor’s Gateway Communities, which will serve families at highest risk, without sacrificing the quality and breadth of services available to children and families living in communities with less intense need. (Less intense is no less important.) Our strategic planning work is being facilitated through our partnership with Social Venture Partners (SVP) Boston.
None of this would be possible without the passion for our mission by Raising A Reader MA staff, volunteers, donors and institutional funders. On behalf of the entire Board, I wanted to thank and acknowledge all of our donors and volunteers, particularly those from SVP Boston.
I am proud to be both a major donor and Chair of the Board of Raising A Reader MA at a time when many of our Massachusetts communities are helping build a statewide infrastructure for early literacy and lifelong achievement. I look forward to sharing our progress over the next year!