A South Texas community volunteer project in collaboration with Success by 6, a program of the United Way of the Coastal Bend

For more information call 361.563.1452 or write info@earlybirdreader.org

The Early Bird Reader Program is a unique collaborative effort between our community, schools, parents and students to insure all of our children have the literacy skills required to successfully launch their school career. We looked for a creative way to make sure more and more of South Texas children come to school having hands-on experience with books and reading. Ours is a peer-to-peer program, kids reading to kids.

Research indicates that children who enter kindergarten without ever having been exposed to reading or books are so significantly behind children who have had that experience that their chances of ever catching up with their peers and expected standards are very slight. To address this concern before children start school, a group of volunteers created a partnership network of organizations to work with the Early Bird Reader Program Committee to provide an ongoing supply of books and implement the program. School librarians teach their students how to read to pre-K younger ones at home as well as providing them with age-appropriate books for their home library. Most of the books for the program are donated by the public to recycle these needed books into the hands (and minds) that most need them.