Program areas at Words Alive
Read Aloud Program volunteers share the joy of a good story while helping children develop the cognitive, language, and social-emotional skills needed to be capable readers. Our program inspires students to be curious, courageous, and compassionate by exploring diverse and relevant books together with caring adults. We provided weekly read aloud experiences and new books to 1,862 students across 22 partner sites over the 2023-24 program year.Students took home over 8,000 books and 7,000 custom bilingual learning kits to deepen connection to the text.
Adolescent Book Group ignites a love of reading by connecting teenagers with volunteer facilitators to discuss, write, and create projects that bring books alive. As students share perspectives in this safe space, they improve communication skills, gain confidence, and enhance their ability to express themselves authentically. Diverse and contemporary text are explored through discussion groups, text analysis, writing workshops, and author or illustrator visits. During the 2023-24 program year, we brought reading alive for 195 teens and tweens. We distributed 395 engaging books to young readers, resulting in an average increase of 60 percent in the size of participants personal libraries.
Family Literacy Program inspires parents and family caregivers to make exploring books a robust family habit by connecting reading and play.Parents and caregivers receive new childrens books to grow their personal libraries and learn engagement strategies and exploratory activities to use reading as a family at home. Families report reading more often together, for longer periods of time, and practicing positive reading behaviors with their children. Offered in English and Spanish, this six-week workshop series reached 1,153 families in the 2023-24 program year and distributed nearly 7,000 books, each paired with a custom bilingual learning kit designed to bring the book alive. An additional 2,000 books were distributed through outreach events to help drive program registration and awareness at partner sites in historically disinvested neighborhoods.