Our Mission
Our mission is to both promote the love of physical diverse books with children ages 4-12 and to use technology to connect our students and mentors with diverse books that encourage, inspire and educate.
Creating Lifelong Readers
Reading (and being read to) has been linked to all sort of amazing benefits
including enhancing creativity, releasing endorphins (positive effect on mood),
increased empathy, decreased stress, enhanced memory, improved school
performance and increased vocabulary. In addition, a long-term study by the Anne
E. Casey Foundation (AECF-Early_Warning_Full_Report-2010.pdf) found that
students who were not proficient in reading by the end of third grade were four
times more likely to drop out of high school than proficient readers. The study
further concluded that 88 percent of students who failed to earn a high school
diploma were struggling readers in third grade.
Our Kids Read is therefore focusing on pre-K through 5th grade as the target for
our reading programs, in hopes of creating life-long readers to can reap the
benefits of reading and all of its benefits.
Mentorship Through Reading
The Our Kids Read “Remote Reading Buddies” program connects white and blue collar professionals, retirees and high school students looking to satisfy their community service hours with young people in our programs who are behind in their reading skills. We recruit from large and small companies, looking for individuals who can spare at least 30 minutes per week to read to a child (minimum 8-week commitment). Our goal is to expand the Reading Buddies program exponentially over the next 5 years: 250 Reading Buddies in 2022, 1,000 Reading Buddies in 2023 and 10,000 Reading Buddies in 2024.
donate
Make a Dollar Donation
Donate a book, a classroom full of books or just a few dollars to support diversity in your local schools. As Our Kids Read is 100% volunteer funded, 91 cents out of every dollar goes to the book giving program.