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Annenberg Foundation Pledges $100,000 to Fund Reading Is Fundamental Literacy Programs in Philadelphia
WASHINGTON—Reading Is Fundamental (RIF®), the nation’s oldest and largest children’s and family literacy organization, announced today that the Annenberg Foundation will donate $100,000 to support family literacy in Philadelphia. The funds will help create new programs that follow RIF’s Family of Readers model, which is designed to empower parents or other family caregivers to take a leading role in encouraging their children’s literacy development.
“We are extremely grateful to the Annenberg Foundation for recognizing the need for literacy programs that support and encourage family involvement,” said Carol H. Rasco, RIF president and CEO. “Through the Foundation’s generous financial support of RIF in the Philadelphia area, we will help many more children and their families develop a lifelong love of reading.”
Currently, RIF reaches about 26,000 children throughout Philadelphia. Using funding from Annenberg, RIF hopes to provide literacy resources to thousands of additional children and their families by reaching out to Head Start centers and offering them the opportunity to run Family of Readers programming.
Through Family of Readers, both parents and children gain valuable literacy experiences. Parents who attend receive training in selecting children’s books, reading aloud, and designing and leading activities that motivate children to read; while children receive new, free books three times a year and participate in the motivational activities that engage them with books and reading.
Family of Readers programs also provide an on-site lending library for participants. Parents help select books to include in the library, which helps increase both their and their children’s exposure to quality children’s literature. Many groups use the libraries to encourage parent involvement in read-aloud activities as well as to build on the children’s love of reading that begins with their “to keep” books. Lending library books are also used as part of the parent training workshops.
Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF), founded in 1966, motivates children to read by working with them, their parents, and community members to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life. RIF’s highest priority is reaching underserved children from birth to age 8. Through community volunteers in every state and U.S. territory, RIF provides 4.6 million children with 15 million new, free books and literacy resources each year. For more information and to access reading resources, visit RIF’s website at www.rif.org.
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For more information, contact:
Layla Wright-Contreras,
Media Relations Manager
202-536-3528
lwright@rif.org
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