Reading Out Of Poverty Inc Where Change Begins

Transcription

1 Reading Out Of Poverty Inc Where Change Begins Annual Report

2 Teach a child to read... Reading Out of Poverty is a registered charitable organisation, with DGR and Public Benevolent Institution status. It is also registered with the Australian Charities and Not For Profit Commission. Donate To... Commonwealth Bank Account name: Reading Out of Poverty Inc BSB: Account number All donations over $2 are fully tax deductible Contact Details Postal Address: PO Box 532 South Melbourne 3205 Street Address: Suite 15 No 20 Commercial Rd Melbourne 3004 All Hours info@readingoutofpoverty.org.au ABN Incorporated Association Vic No. A H

3 ...& you will change their life forever. Our Mission Reading out of Poverty is focused on developing the early literacy skills of Victoria s most disadvantaged children including those from low socioeconomic backgrounds, new migrant families, refugee and Indigenous backgrounds. Our primary purpose is to provide a strong foundation for children to learn to read so that they can succeed in education and reach their full potential Teach a child to read and you will change their life forever. Who we are Reading Out of Poverty is a non-profit organisation that supports children and families in the pre-literacy and early learning stage of development. Our primary purpose is to provide opportunities for disadvantaged children aged 0-5 years to engage in reading and early literacy development activities. We focus on children who are at high risk of developing poor literacy and numeracy skills and low level educational outcomes. We aim to promote a love for and habit of reading. We establish unique partnerships with local community groups to develop essential early literacy and language skills of children from disadvantaged backgrounds where illiteracy is common. Community partners include parents and carers, pre-schools, community hubs and centres, health and welfare centres and migrant groups, government housing estates and Indigenous cooperatives.

4 Our History Our community involvement began in 2011 at the South Melbourne, Fitzroy and Collingwood Housing Commission Estates. We started by offering guest story tellers, pop up libraries, book give aways to playgroups and other community groups located in low socio economic communities in the inner city. We grew our services to Geelong and Dandenong in Our goal was simply to see children develop a love for and habit of reading. We recognised that our target audience were not visiting their local library and engaging in early childhood literacy services. These children required localised grassroots early literacy intervention support within their community, at places they use and frequent often.

5 & What we do We provide early intervention literacy programs which are designed to promote higher levels of We train and equip a team of volunteers to go out into the community to promote a love for and habit of reading. We work with established community groups to give books to children and promote reading out aloud opportunities. Reading aloud is critical to a young child s development for a wide range of reasons including: It builds word-sound awareness in children, the basis for literacy development and reading success. Provides the opportunity for parents to nurture their children and offers them one on one attention and bonding time. This encourages children to form a positive association with books and reading later in life. Exposes children to story and print knowledge as well as rare words and ideas not often found in day-to-day conversations or screen time. Gives children the opportunity to practice listening - a crucial skill for kindergarten and beyond. Children from families who read together will enter kindergarten better prepared to succeed, with larger vocabularies and stronger language skills. We also help parents understand the importance of reading with children in the preschool years. Through mentoring we promote educational strategies and provide helpful hints to ensure their child develops a love for reading and has the pre-literacy skills necessary to succeed at school. Our evidence based early intervention programs help parents to discover new ways to stimulate their children s literacy development, to have more books in their home and read to their children more often. Why we do it We view literacy development as a critical issue for children and the wider community. Our philosophy stems from research conducted by the Clinton Foundation in 2010, which highlighted the long-term personal, social and economic impact of not reading to children in the early years. The research found that children from low-income and marginalised backgrounds are most affected. Kids who start school without the required level of basic language and reading skills are already at a disadvantage. This early set back can have a ripple effect as they continue their education and beyond. Through a targeted early intervention approach, we can address the key contributing factors and help break the cycle of poverty caused by illiteracy. Literacy begins at birth. Children who are not read to from birth generally begin school with a lower foundation of language and reading skills, and are often lacking the basic literacy skills required for formal education. This is critical for a child s early success at school and it s why these early intervention programs are so important. We help those who need it most. Research indicates that children from disadvantaged and low-income families read fewer books, and often encounter literacy problems later in life. Studies also show that school failures and social and employment problems are much higher among children who struggled with reading in the early years. For this reason, we primarily target children from low socio-economic backgrounds who have limited exposure to reading activities. Our early intervention literacy programs are designed to promote higher levels of reading to children from birth to five years. We train and equip a team of volunteers to go out into the community to promote a love for and habit of reading. We work with established community groups to give books to children and promote reading out aloud opportunities. Reading aloud is critical to a young child s development for a wide range of reasons including: It builds word-sound awareness in children which is the basis for literacy development and reading success. Provides the opportunity for parents to nurture their children and offers them one on one attention and bonding time. This encourages children to form a positive association with books and reading later in life. Exposes children to story and print knowledge as well as rare words and ideas not often found in day-to-day conversations or screen time. Gives children the opportunity to practice listening - a crucial skill for kindergarten and beyond. Children from families who read together will enter kindergarten better prepared to succeed, with larger vocabularies and stronger language skills. We also help parents understand the importance of reading with children in the pre-school years. Through mentoring we promote educational strategies and provide helpful hints to ensure their child develops a love for reading and has the pre-literacy skills necessary to succeed at school. Our evidence based early intervention programs help parents to discover new ways to stimulate their children s literacy development, to have more books in their home and read to their children more often.

6 Key Activities Reading Out Aloud In , our team of volunteers provided read aloud story times with community groups around Victoria. We were the guest story tellers at 52 community hubs, health, welfare and migrant centres, playgroups and pre-school centres across Melbourne. We estimate that 4100 children were involved in this program in Children whose families are actively involved in literacy activities have larger vocabularies. The Read aloud program involves volunteers going into libraries, mother s groups, playgroups and other community centres to run story time sessions. Guest storytellers create a fun and engaging opportunity for children and parents to share in the joy of reading books together. This concept not only gives variety for the parents, but also demonstrates to parents how to read and increase their level of engagement with their children. Reading aloud is critical to a young child s development for a wide range of reasons: Builds word-sound awareness in children the basis for literacy development and reading success. Provides the opportunity for one on one bonding time between parents and children, forming a positive association with books and reading later in life. Exposes children to story and print knowledge as well as rare words and ideas not often found in day-to-day conversations or screen time. Gives children the opportunity to practice listening a crucial skill for kindergarten and beyond Books Giving Program We were able to distribute 11,500 new and preloved children s books directly to young and eager readers in The books were donated by a number of sources including Pearson International, Rotary International, community groups and many supportive individuals. We appreciated the support of a number of children s authors who also partnered with us. There are many homes across Victoria where children don t own a single book Through the book giving program we distribute books donated by corporate partners, community groups and individuals. This is essential to our organisation and the core of what we do. In this program, we give the gift of a backpack containing age appropriate books for each child and distribute books to community centres and pre-schools. We also give new and pre-loved children s books directly to young and eager readers. Our goal is to give 20,000 books to the community in the next 12 months. You can help us achieve this goal by initiating a book drive in your community or donating to this program. Parent Mentoring Program In , we provided mentoring support to 182 parents. Personal encouragement and guidance is critical to the long term success of our pre-literacy programs. If parents do not understand and appreciate the importance of reading to their children from birth, we cannot break the cycle of disadvantage in these families. Children from families who read together will enter kindergarten better prepared to succeed, with larger vocabularies and stronger language skills. Shared reading has a significant impact on vocabulary development, listening comprehension and understanding of print concepts. But for parents who were never read to as a child, reading to their own children is unfamiliar and for many, daunting particularly if they re not good readers themselves. To help facilitate this change, we provide mentoring to support parents in this important activity. We provide strategies and helpful hints to ensure their child develops a love for reading and has the skills necessary to succeed at school and life. Christmas giving program A gift to make a difference One of the biggest times of the year for giving is at Christmas. We work alongside numerous organisations and community groups to identify children who would most benefit from the gift of 2 to 3 brand new and donated books. This is a memorable program for all involved It represents a special time for families, as these presents reach the homes of children who may not otherwise be given gifts or have books to call their own. Pop-up libraries In disadvantaged families, fewer books were found in their home therefore diminishing their general language exposure. We ve found that families who live in lower socio-economic areas have fewer books in their home and don t regularly visit a community library. So in we introduced pop-up libraries in frequented spaces such as medical centres, welfare offices, community centres, playgrounds and kindergartens. Hospital and medical centre project (New Project in 2015) Partnering with health providers to get the message through. We believe it s vital to integrate advice about the importance of reading aloud into a child s visit to a health facility. We need to tap into the unique relationship between parents and medical providers. Through this program we partner with health professionals in medical centres, hospitals and maternal health centres to provide parents with this information about the importance of early literacy development and school readiness. This is a great opportunity to provide free children s books, tutoring and literacy support to children Ṿolunteerism Our team of 22 volunteers are the heart and soul of our community programs. They go into the community to read to children, mentor parents and promote a love of reading. In they provided 3500 hours of reading time through our Read Aloud program - a lot of books and hundreds of happy children. The hours donated by the volunteers is valued at $142,000. Thank-you!.

7 Our Impact in children received pre-literacy support 11,500 new and pre-loved books were distributed to disadvantaged children in Victoria 9 communities in Melbourne were the major focus of service delivery 3500 volunteer hours were provided Involvement in 42 community groups through a range of pre-literacy activities including reading out aloud, one on one reading to children and donations of books.

8 Note from Emma Pearce, Project Manager Reading Out of Poverty serves many disadvantaged people in Melbourne including those living below the poverty line, young single parents, new immigrants, children at high risk, caught is a cycle of poverty. We estimate that one in four children in Victoria who are at the age of school entry are not prepared or ready! In particular they do not have the language and early literacy skills necessary to learn to read. Despite all the efforts of our educational system, about one quarter of children are not reading at grade level. Reading delay and school failure are much higher among children who grow up in poverty. School failure limits the future potential of these children, and contributes to the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Children who start school without language and early literacy skills are at high risk of progressing through school without achieving the required reading level for their grade. Over time they continue to fail, they drop out, they are more likely to get in trouble with the law, and to perpetuate the cycle of poverty and dependency. Those first five years of a child s life are critical. If we want to help children succeed, we have to help parents build the skills their children need to arrive at school ready to learn to read. Over the past few years, we ve had a key role to play in the community. By giving out books and investing in the lives of children and parents, we have helped to develop a love and habit of reading. We have worked hard to ensure that children are school ready and have the confidence and skills to succeed. Thank you for taking this journey with us.

9 Committee of Management Andrew Kay, Angelica Correa, Coordinator of Refuge of Hope Inc, a Latin American program supporting migrants, refugees and international students with social inclusion programs. Darryn Keneally, Executive Director, In 2 life a youth focused mentoring and wellbeing program John Steward, Community Development Manager, Mornington Paula Londono, a reading specialist, running community-based learn to read programs for children from low income families. Staff Project Manager - Emma Pearce Project Manager - John Steward (part time) Memberships, Associations and supporters: Ross House Community Association, AFI, Hinkler Education, Splitting Image Publishing, Melbourne s Multicultural Hub, International Reading Association and Connecting Up Inc. Auditors: Accountant Louis Villanueva IPA Reg no: Our Partners The partnerships that we established in have made a profound contribution to the work of Reading Out Of Poverty. We work with a variety of community groups including Rotary Clubs, playgroups, pre-schools, kindergartens, and immigration centres. As an organisation, we are incredibly grateful for the assistance and support of these wonderful groups. A special thanks to: Urban Seed, Cloverdale Community Centre, Dandenong Community Hub network, Dandenong Hospital and the ACU homework reading program. Special thanks to: GWA Griffiths Estate, Bennelong Foundation, Readings Foundation, Harold Mitchell Foundation, Pierce Armstrong Foundation, Sidney Myer Fund, Alfred Felton Bequest, Equity Trustees, Hazel Peat Trust, J.T. Reid Charitable Trust, The Ian Potter Foundation, Viva Energy, Freemasons Foundation, The Andrews Foundation, City of Melbourne, EastWeb Fund, Steve McKnight Foundation, Uebergang Foundation, Collier Charitable Fund, E.C. White Trust, Give Where You Live, Victorian Women s Trust, Nourish Foods, Whole Kids Small Seeds Community Grants Program, RACV Community Foundation.

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