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We are proud to announce that Raising A Reader, San Francisco, Alameda & Contra Costa Counties has been chosen as a recipient for a 2014 Kenneth Rainin Foundation award. Raising A Reader was chosen among several Bay Area organizations to receive awards from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. In total, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation awarded over $700,000 to a dozen community organizations to support various early literacy initiatives.

The Kenneth Rainin Foundation’s Raising A Reader grant supports our red-bag rotation program in Oakland, helping engage families to create and maintain a book sharing routines, and providing more parent and educator training in early literacy techniques and skills.

As part of this award, Raising A Reader has been chosen as an implementing partner of the SEEDS of Early Literacy in Oakland. This professional development model will train and coach teachers in evidence-based early language and literacy intentional instruction, using formative assessment to guide decision-making, and incorporating on-site coaching for support. In the coming year, we will be adding 10 Reading Corps volunteers to support the SEEDS program within Oakland preschools and transitional kindergartens. These volunteers will work in the classroom, helping children develop early literacy and language skills. As a result, children throughout Oakland will have access to early childhood environments that promote language and literacy growth, and plants the seeds of reading success in kindergarten. Additionally, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation’s continued support ensures that Raising A Reader’s red bag book rotation program will serve over 4,000 children in Oakland in the coming year.

About SEEDS
SEEDS (Sensitive, Encourage, Educate, Develop through Doing, and Self-Image) combines research based information on five critical early literacy skills of: discourse, a rich vocabulary and background knowledge, phonological awareness, book and print rules and letter knowledge, and the convincing body of research on relationship-based adult-child interactions which shows that children learn best when adults are sensitive and responsive to a child’s social-emotional needs, as well as care about their educational goals and practice. This program was developed by Kate Horst, author and parent, to provide parents and educators a map of children’s behavioral development that remains constant over time.

About the Kenneth Rainin Foundation
Kenneth Rainin Foundation is a private family foundation dedicated to enhancing quality of life by championing and sustaining the arts, promoting early childhood literacy and supporting research to cure chronic disease. More at krfoundation.org.

View the complete list of 2014 Award Recipients on the Kenneth Rainin Foundation website. Learn more about the foundation’s mission, focus, and latest early literacy initiatives here and here.