weeROAR

weeROAR Hero Image

Team Members:Stuart Barber, Sandra Chavez, Samuel Murray, Andy Patrick, Faith Polkey, Wendy Pollitzer, Paul Sommerville, Lisa Sulka

Many pediatric providers in Beaufort County participate in the Reach Out and Read (ROR) program, a national, non-profit school readiness organization. Physicians, who take care of children, partner with ROR to give books to those aged 6 months to 5 years during their well child checks and to encourage parents to read aloud to them daily. Research by the ROR program has shown that children from families that participate have larger vocabularies, stronger language skills and a six month edge when they enter kindergarten.

weeROAR, would like to improve early literacy and promote school readiness for children in Beaufort County by providing linkages to help parents improve their literacy skills.  We facilitated the collaboration of the ROR program from Beaufort Jasper Hampton Comprehensive Health Services (BJHCHS) with Literacy Volunteers of the Lowcountry and the United Way, in order to provide reading training to the parents of the children.

By uniting these organizations’ services, the group seeks to:

  • leverage the relationship between the doctor, the parent and the child with regard to the importance of reading
  • help identify non-reading parents
  • affect the rates of school readiness for children in Beaufort County

Meet the Fellows from this class.