Welcome to our Newest Program Sites
Dr. Brian J. Dempsey, Pittsfield
TLC Pediatrics,
Revere
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Please Respond to the Medical Consultants Survey
The Annual Medical Consultant Survey has been sent to all Medical Consultants. While it takes no more than 5 minutes to fill out and submit the anonymous survey, your candid feedback helps us advance the work we do. | |
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Grant Opportunities from Walmart
 Our colleagues in other states report that they have had good luck applying for book-funding help through their local Walmart's Local Giving Program Grants. Choose the Facility Giving Option here and let us know how you do...or contact your coordinator for help.
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Sign Up Now for the Next Reach Out and Read QI Project
The next Reach Out and Read MOC qualifying QI project starts July 8th; all Reach Out and Read physicians needing MOC credits are invited to participate. Applications will be accepted through Friday, June 28th.
More than eighty medical providers participated in the most recent project. Using an ABP- and ABFM-approved PDSA quality improvement process, all participating program sites demonstrated improvements in their Reach Out and Read program implementation. During the final data collection wrap-up, one physician said, "This process helped us look at ways to simplify and become more efficient. By making things better for us, it makes it better for the families we serve."
Another MD noted, "It was an opportunity to think about re-training and to work in collaboration with our residents. Joining us on this project translated into other projects the residents then did on their own."
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Fox25: Zip Trip Book Collections All Summer Long!
FOX25 Morning News and The Paper Store have once again generously offered to collect new children's books for Reach Out and Read during their annual Zip Trips this summer.
Every Friday, the Fox25 Morning News team will broadcast live from a different community in the region.
Residents, neighbors, and kids of all ages are invited to attend the live broadcast and bring with them a new, "Doctor-Recommended" book to donate to Reach Out and Read. (Click here for the booklist.) We are so grateful to again be a part of this incredibly successful program.
Zip Trips scheduled so far:
June 28 - Rockland
July 5 - Harwich
July 12 - Quincy
July 19 - Ashland
July 26 - Somerville
If Fox25 is coming to your town, we hope you will come out and show your support!
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Notes from National
On April 11th, Reach Out and Read received the 2013 Award of Honor from the American Hospital Association for its efforts to improve children's literacy and ensure that all children start school ready to read and succeed. Dr. Perri Klass, Reach Out and Read's National Medical Director, and Dr. Trude Haecker, Reach Out and Read Greater Philadelphia's Medical Director, accepted the award on behalf of the nearly 5,000 Reach Out and Read programs and over 12,000 providers who do this work every day. The award is given in recognition of exemplary contributions to the health and well-being of people through leadership on major health policies or social initiatives.
Earlier this month, Anne-Marie Fitzgerald, Reach Out and Read's Executive Director and Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, Reach Out and Read Wisconsin's Medical Director, participated in the
Lions Club International's "Reading and Literacy Summit" held just outside of Chicago. The summit brought together representatives from twenty-five organizations to discuss the promotion of early reading and brain development, the use of innovative, low-cost technologies, and capacity- building within the education sector. Reach Out and Read was well received at the summit and the Lions have adopted literacy promotion as their main service project for the next decade. If you would like to learn if your local Lion's Club is interested in supporting your programs' book needs, contact your regional coordinator.
is available. A set includes eight pads of 50 sheets each, one pad for each of the seven developmental disabilities plus the suggested book list. Please let your Regional Coordinator know if you are interested, or print your own from the link above.
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click here to see our new website
click here to see our Facebook page
Reach Out and Read New England
Massachusetts Newsletter
Summer 2013
Serving
195,184
Massachusetts children
in 285 clinical locations |
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Dear Reach Out and Read Colleagues,
Summer is finally here, and with it come all the wonderful things we associate with warmer weather. In addition to sand, surf, and ice cream, it's important to remember all of the terrific, free community-based programming that is offered for children and families once school is out. At local public libraries, children and their caregivers can enjoy a cool afternoon, listening to stories and combing the shelves for books that tickle their fancy and exercise their young minds.
Please join us as we continue to encourage our Reach Out and Read families to take advantage of their local libraries this summer, to reinforce their love of books and learning, and to help prepare their older children for the coming school year. As part of your literacy-rich waiting areas, it would be wonderful if you would post information for your patients reminding them about branch locations, hours and special programming being offered to the public this summer.
The Massachusetts Regional Coordinators have been going to the library as well! This spring we joined forces with the Cambridge Public Library and the Horn Book to hold a Fostering Lifelong Learners Conference at the CPL. Our Regional Coordinators speak about family literacy to students at the Simmons Graduate Library program.
And, as luck would have it, we recently received a picture of one of our staff children, posing in front of the posters originally created for the Massachusetts Reach Out and Read library initiative. I thought I would take this opportunity to share the photo of Henry - already happily looking for books in the Children's Room at the Lee Library. Our fingers are crossed that with your help, many of our children and their families will do the same!
With Warm Wishes for a Wonderful Summer,
Laurie Flynn, MFA Western Mass Regional Coordinator |
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At the Library
Let us know how YOU partner with your local library, and we will feature the story in an upcoming newsletter!
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Reach Out and Read Massachusetts Partners with the Horn Book and
Cambridge Public Library to
Foster Lifelong Learners
At Reach Out and Read Massachusetts we work to provide our program sites with books that have vivid characters and engaging stories, told in rich language, to inspire families to read together. With this common goal, we were delighted to join forces with the Cambridge Public Library and the Horn Book to present Fostering Lifelong Learners, a conference for librarians and early childhood educators held at the Cambridge Public Library on April 25th.
Bringing together the worlds of pediatrics, education, literary criticism, and library services, the conference explored the literary, artistic, social, and developmental aspects of children's literature. Roger Sutton, Horn Book Editor, moderated a day of presentations keynoted by Reach Out and Read founder and Board member Robert Needlman MD, and followed by presentations from Massachusetts Medical Director Marilyn Augustyn MD, and Cambridge Health Alliance Director of Pediatrics Lisa Dobberteen MD.
Other presenters who engaged and enticed included Julie Roach, Youth Services Manager, Cambridge Public Library; Kitty Flynn, Executive Editor of the Horn Book Guide; and Cambridge teachers Anne MacKay and Jim St. Claire. Presentations of new and upcoming books by conference sponsors Penguin, Charlesbridge, and DK Inc had attendees scribbling wish lists. It was an exciting day of dialogue that, like Reach Out and Read itself, may soon expand to other cities across the country. Stay tuned! |
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Kids Helping Kids
Rebecca Singley, Little Miss Massachusetts,
Collects Books for Reach Out and Read
Rebecca Singley of Worcester was recently crowned Little Miss Massachusetts through the USA Ambassador Pageant. Community service is one of the opportunities of the title so Rebecca, age 4, chose to organize a book drive at their dance studio (with a little help from her mother, Melissa Singley). Rebecca is a patient at Chandler Pediatrics in Worcester and decided to donate all collected books to Dr. Riordan and Chandler Pediatrics. They were able to collect over 300 books and presented Dr. Riordan with a check for $100 to purchase new books!
Congratulations, Rebecca, and a big thank you for the very successful book drive! |
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Thank You |
To the
Horn Book and to Lisa Dawson-Leavy, Medical Home Care Coordinator at Dr. Peter Masucci's
practice in Everett, for their creativity. Jackie Miller, Reach Out and Read's National Book Coordinator, has been arranging for donations of young adult novels from Horn Book reviewers to Massachusetts Reach Out and Read, and then out to program sites. At Dr. Masucci's office, Lisa identified a creative way to extend the Reach Out and Read program to older patients by creating a teen lending library. Books can be borrowed and traded in whenever patients come in for a visit. Jackie and Lisa, you are both reading-promotion champions!
To Kim Dern of North Easton who collected new books for preschoolers at her child's recent birthday party and donated them to Reach Out and Read. As a speech pathologist, Kim is well aware that promoting early childhood literacy can have a profound impact on learning. We so appreciate this kind of thinking and generosity. Thank you from all the children who will go home with a new book!
To Lori Lander and the Beth El Temple Center in Belmont for their enormously successful book drive. The timing of this year's drive was perfect, as Cambridge Health Alliance at Union Square in Somerville was completely out of books. Juliane Liberus, PA and Reach Out and Read On-Site Coordinator, was thrilled to receive an infusion of new and gently used books for their patients.
To Wendy Newman, Amanda Glyn, and the families of the Jewish Community Centers' Early Learning Center in Wayland for their contribution of beautiful new books and funds for Reach Out and Read programs whose book supplies are running low! The carefully-chosen books are just what the doctor ordered!
| | To Lorna Ruby and the staff at Wellesley Booksmith who are providing a steady stream of children's, teen and adult books that benefit all ages at our Reach Out and Read program sites! |
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Brain Building in Progress
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Before the age of three, the human brain develops more
rapidly than at any other time in life.
Young children's brains develop 700 synapses every second.
(neural connections that
transmit information)
Above is some of the information that the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care's Brain Building in Progress project wants to communicate to parents.
The DEEC supports a network of 99 Coordinated Family and Community Engagement (CFCE) grantees, which are embedded in community agencies across the Commonwealth to provide all families with access to locally available, comprehensive services and supports that strengthen families and promote optimal child development.
To ensure that all children are receiving the best care, CFCE agencies desire to develop working partnerships with pediatricians in their communities so that there is
an open dialog regarding child development, parental support, and referrals (if necessary). These partnerships are mutually beneficial; both pediatricians and CFCE agencies can refer each other to parents with young children, as needed.
When there is a trusted and ongoing relationship between CFCE agencies and parents, CFCE staff use the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ). A screening
tool that supports parents as their child's first teacher, the ASQ also allows parents to learn more about a child's development and how to support a child's growth and development. If any concerns arise from the screening, CFCE agencies can then refer parents to appropriate activities, if applicable.
DEEC is also looking for more ways to support pediatricians in linking families to formal and informal early education and care opportunities. Currently, pediatricians are involved in designing a statewide
universal screening system for children from birth to five years of age. To learn more about the Brain Building in Progress initiative, read the article in the Summer AAP Forum here.
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