Reach Out and Read Minnesota

Books build brains.
Books build bonds.
Books build brighter futures.

We need your support to help us bring our evidence based program to young children and their families all across Minnesota.
Together, we can help Minnesota's youngest learners thrive.

2024

Reach Out and Read Minnesota is asking for your support to help bring our brain-building, family-bonding program to young children across the state. We know that the future holds much uncertainty for Minnesota families, but no matter what twists and turns the future may take, we do know this for certain:

Sharing a book with a loved one can change the trajectory of a child's life. 

Shared reading boosts children's brain development, preparing them for a lifetime of learning. Shared reading helps build bonds between children and their parents/caregivers. Shared reading can help children process toxic stress, allowing their brains to develop healthily and happily. Shared reading can bring moments of joy to children and their parents alike, no matter what is happening in the outside world. 

Our program seeks to bring the powerful effects of sharing a book to every child in Minnesota, no matter their zip code, what their family looks like, or what language they speak at home. This is why our team is working harder than ever to bring the highest-quality version of our evidence-based program to Minnesota families. 

With a growing network of over 300 clinics all across the state, we have an opportunity to make a resounding, lasting impact on our state's youngest learners and their families.

But we need your help to make this happen. 

Your support will help us:

- Buy the best books for our clinics caring for underserved populations, including books that represent our diverse patient populations and books in families' preferred languages.

- Get our staff into our clinics for visits in every corner of the state, ensuring that each site is having their greatest impact on the families they serve every day. 

- Bring on new clinics and train more healthcare providers, reaching new families and helping change the standard of pediatric care in Minnesota! 

 Any support you can give will help us build brains and bring families together at clinics all across Minnesota! 

"Books are medicine in so many ways.... My patients have started little libraries in their home. Patients and parents are excited to get books!  [The books] remind our patients of their culture (such as the wild rice book) which is medicine as well!"

Valerie Norris, MD,  Native American Community Clinic, Minneapolis

"Reach Out and Read has rejuvenated and repurposed well child visits. Providers use it as a tool to assess development. It brings joy to visits."

Maegan Storm, APRN CNP, Mayo Clinic Health System, Faribault

Reach Out and Read Minnesota is a nonprofit organization that seeks to give Minnesotan children a foundation for success by incorporating books into children's routine pediatric care and encouraging families to read together. 

Our program works with clinics across the state to provide children with culturally and developmentally appropriate books, and educate families on how to use those books to help build their children's brains. 

We know our program works! Reading to children has been proven essential to their brain development, their social emotional well-being, as well as their school readiness. Families in our program are 2.5 times as likely to read to to their together, and children in our program improve their language ability by 3-6 months.

We currently serve over 160,000 children across the state at more than 300 clinics. We know we can reach more children with your support!