BECAUSE
BOOKS MATTER
Help us provide books for Head Start and other disadvantaged preschool students throughout the Greater Philadelphia area. Many of these children have no books at home. These treasured books help to build their home libraries.
Your $5 donation will purchase a book for a deserving preschool student.
20 books provide a classroom of students with a book to call their own!
You should receive verification through Pay Pal for your donation. Thank you!
Or to donate by check, mail your contribution to:
RSVP Volunteers
901 East 8th Ave., Suite 200
King of Prussia, PA 19406
Thank You!
Family Literacy Program Mission
RSVP developed this program to broaden low-income kids’ reading exposure and their parents’ involvement. Volunteer readers assist Head Start teachers by reading to students to excite them about reading. Six times each year all 669 Head Start students are sent home with books they can keep and treasure. An additional 500 books were sent home with students participating in the Kennett Square Reading Readiness project. Parents receive read-aloud tips encouraging at-home reading and for those who want it, adult literacy tutoring.
During COVID, our volunteers continued reading to preschool students on their computers to build excitement around reading and storytime. Parents participated in online workshops providing reading tips creating fun and interactive ideas for story time.
A Book of Her Own
Here's why each $5 you donate makes possible so much more than a kid's book:
Four-year-old Isabella loved the picture books in her Head Start preschool program. When her family moved to Norristown last year from Honduras, they could barely meet expenses, let alone buy storybooks. ​
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When she joined Head Start, Isabella couldn’t understand English. Her picture books began connecting words to images. To her delight, through RSVP’s Family Literacy Program, Isabella received six books to take home and keep — and a stuffed animal, Lucky, the program's reading dog mascot.
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Today, just one year later, Isabella is reading her treasured books to her younger siblings. Her parents now receive adult literacy training through RSVP so they can achieve the quality of life they desire for their family.
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Isabella’s story is a composite drawn from the experiences of thousands of children who have been helped by the Family Literacy Volunteer Program and its 24-year partnership with local Head Start teachers.
Learn More About our Family Literacy Program
Read more to their children than before the school year began: 80%
Say their child more often looks at or reads books, or asks to be read to more often: 75%
Better understand the importance of reading and how to help their child at home: 83%
Say siblings of their Head Start child are now more interested in reading: 64%
Does Family Literacy Make a Difference?
From a survey of 469 Head Start parents with kids in RSVP’s family literacy program:
Become a Volunteer
Our Literacy Program is always welcoming new volunteers.