Over the past few months, we have shared across the state that by incorporating our evidence-based model into pediatric care and offering families the tools and support they need to read together, we can transform pediatric care, not only promoting healthy families but also ensuring that children from all backgrounds and circumstances receive a better start in life.

Reach Out and Read-Alabama and the Executive Board of the Alabama Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics hosted a private dinner and conversation with nationally recognized pediatrician, educator, and advocate Dr. Dipesh Navsaria. Held at Central Restaurant in downtown Montgomery, the event brought together a dedicated group of leaders from state agencies and children’s advocacy organizations for a focused discussion on the intersection of early relational health, early literacy, and public policy. 

We are putting the Reach Out and Read-Alabama puzzle together piece by piece -- working to empower all families -- the cornerstones of our puzzle -- with young children through guidance from medical clinicians about nurturing relationships through shared reading. When we complete our picture, every child has the relationships and resources they need to learn and thrive. In partnership with a network of clinicians, ROR-AL leverages the near-universal reach of the pediatric well-child visit, using children's books and shared reading to support parents and caregivers in strengthening healthy relationships with their infants and young children, birth through 5 years old. Pediatric care providers -- the unique shapes in our puzzle -- share the lifelong benefits that result from parents reading aloud with their children every day.

Reach Out and Read’s launches new strategic plan, vision and mission and Reach Out and Read-Alabama is committed to supporting this bold goal by recruiting new clinics to join our program and giving special attention to clinics in underserved areas.

More than 100 Reach Out and Read leaders from across the country, including statewide coordinator, Amy Crosby, and Elizabeth Dawson, MD, FAAP, gathered in New York City in May for the 2024 Reach Out and Read Leadership Conference, “Moments that Matter: Strengthening Early Relationships Through Systems Change.”

The EARLY Lab at Auburn University, in collaboration with Reach Out and Read-Alabama, is committed to supporting early literacy and parent-infant relational health.

In the spirit of Iron Bowl competition, the Lee and Tuscaloosa county district attorney’s offices “teamed up” with Reach Out and Read-Alabama to not only try to beat one another in the state's biggest rivalry, but to beat illiteracy, one book at a time!

Reach Out and Read is a family affair…

On July 1, Governor Kay Ivey, along with Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education Secretary Barbara Cooper, Alabama Medicaid Agency Commissioner Stephanie Azar, and Alabama Public Health State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris announced the expansion of Reach Out and Read-Alabama with funding to expand services to children living in Macon, Marshall, Monroe, Jefferson, and Randolph counties, the five pilot counties for the governor's Campaign for Grade-Level Reading initiated last July.

Some of our pediatric healthcare providers share their favorite books.

When children are cuddled in the lap of a loving caregiver, enjoying a book together, they feel safe and secure.