Proudly serving Minnesota's youngest learners since 1997
Reach Out and Read as a national organization was founded in 1989 by a small group of pediatricians in Boston who saw the unique opportunity they had to make an impact on children's' health and development through books and reading. The program first arrived to Minnesota in 1997 when 3 clinics, inspired by the powerful results Reach Out and Read chapters were achieving across the country, began using the program. From there, Reach Out and Read expanded rapidly across the state. In 2005, Reach Out and Read formed an official state chapter and by 2010 the program had over 70 participating clinics.
In order to better meet the unique needs of our Minnesota clinics, Reach Out and Read became an independent Minnesota nonprofit corporation in June of 2016. As an organization, Reach Out and Read Minnesota has been committed to providing the highest quality and most culturally appropriate services to our participating families. While our aim is to serve all children and their families across the state, we also make an effort to target clinics that serve higher risk and lower income populations. Additionally, we provide books in multiple languages that mirror the needs of our local Minnesotan communities, including books in Spanish, Somali, Hmong, Karen, Burmese, and Ojibwe.
Reach Out and Read Minnesota is now active at over 300 clinics statewide, serving over 160,000 young children and their families and distributing more than 300,000 annually. We aim to continue to grow our reach across our state with a particular focus on underserved communities, including low-income areas, communities of color, and rural areas.
We also seek to expand our impact through new initiatives, such as our Reach Out and Read in the NICU program, and collaborations with other organizations, such as local library systems and the Little Moments Count coalition.
We envision a future for Minnesota where every child is read to every day. We envision a future where every child has the loving, nurturing relationships they need to thrive.
We invite you to join our movement and help make this vision a reality for every child in our state.
