Jun 26, 2020 /
Topic:
Uvalde Memorial Hospital (UMH) is thrilled to announce the implementation of Reach Out and Read. The new program promotes early literacy beginning with newborn patients in the hospital’s Women’s and Newborns’ Center, and carrying on through age five at the child’s wellness visits with participating local family medicine providers.
Reach Out and Read is a national program that understands the best opportunity to influence a child's literacy future is in the first five years of their life. The program helps ensure children are exposed to books in these early, crucial years to develop a strong foundation. Most importantly, the program encourages families to read aloud and engage with their infants, toddlers and preschoolers every day.
As a Reach Out and Read site, UMH will give a book to each child born in the hospital’s Women’s and Newborns’ Center beginning July 1. Additionally, local providers who opted in to the program with UMH will distribute a book to children during well-child visits at Sage Family Medicine Associates and Uvalde Family Practice Association. Children will receive a brand-new, age appropriate book at each of their 2, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24-months appointments, as well as 3, 4 and 5-years.
“We firmly believe in the program’s methods to encourage reading and are eager to begin providing books to the children of our community,” said Karla Radicke, marketing manager at UMH.
Participation in the program stems from findings of the hospital’s 2018 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) in which an opportunity was identified to assist with promotion of early literacy. With that finding in mind, representatives from UMH reached out to UCISD and El Progresso Memorial Library for a brainstorming session in early 2019. Shortly after, library director Mendell Morgan shared a program he’d come across called Reach Out and Read. The program proved to be the perfect way for a healthcare facility to partner in early literacy efforts.
The hospital began the process of becoming a Reach Out and Read site and training for interested providers took place into early 2020. In March 2020, UMH received their official designation as a Reach Out and Read site partner.
The program will help integrate reading into pediatric practices, advise families about the importance of reading with their children, and share books that serve as a catalyst for healthy childhood development.
Effectiveness of the Reach Out and Read model is recognized by the American Academy of Pediatrics in a policy statement that recommends early literacy promotion as an essential component of pediatric care. Reach Out and Read currently serves 4.7 million children in the United States.
Archives
- December 2021
- November 2021
- September 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- March 2017
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- August 2015
- June 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- June 2014