The Rochester Public Library has been an affiliate of the National Raising A Reader Program since 2012. Raising A Reader has become central to the services RPL offers families because of the positive impact on our community.
Raising A Reader is a nonprofit organization that helps families develop, practice, and maintain literacy habits critical for a child’s success in school and in life. Raising A Reader’s mission is to engage parents and caregivers in a routine of book sharing with their children from birth through age eight to foster healthy brain development, healthy relationships, a love of reading, and the literacy skills critical for school success. The Raising A Reader program is evidence-based, with more than 21 independent evaluations, showing that Raising A Reader significantly improves language and literacy skills, school readiness, family reading behavior and parent-child bonding.
We serve these childcare sites to offer weekly bookbag rotation when school is fully in session:
- Action for A Better Community Home Visiting Program
- Action for A Better Community Early Head Start at Hart Street, Joseph Avenue, and North Street sites
- Hillside Peter Castle Family Resource Center
- Ibero Childcare Center
- Rochester ChildFirst Network – Center City & South Avenue
- RCSD Schools 3, 10
- VOA Childcare Center
During remote learning, we have adjusted the program so that all families can visit any Rochester Public Library location, Fairport Library, or Ogden Farmers Library to check out blue Raising A Reader bags. Each bag contains four high quality children’s books. The bags are labeled for ages 0-2, 3-4, or 5-8 and have one bilingual book in each bag. Please click here to see what bags are available.
For caregivers, we have developed a series of videos designed to replicate the in-person family programs. Each video highlights a different skill. The videos are prerecorded and can be viewed in any order. For anyone needing access to a computer and/or wi-fi, the Central Library can provide access. Call 428-8156 for more information.