Imagine every preschooler on the Peninsula and in Silicon Valley falling in love with books, and arriving at kindergarten ready to learn. This is the vision of the Peninsula Community Foundation, San Mateo County Library, Peninsula Partnership for Children, Youth, and Families and the Center for Venture Philanthropy as they launch the Raising A Reader Book Bag Program in 23 cities in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. From a successful spring pilot program with 500 families in Pacifica, Redwood City and San Mateo, the Raising A Reader Book Bag Program is expanding to serve 6,100 families.
Preschoolers carry home bright-red canvas bags filled with quality children's books.
Each bag contains four books, two written in English, one in Spanish and one bilingual or wordless picture book. At the end of each week, the children turn their books in for a new supply. Child care center staff are trained to help facilitate the program. Our pilot program showed that families spent more time together because of the books, and that the quality of their communication was significantly improved. Educators have long recognized that reading is a key skill for overall success.