What are the functions of the Early Literacy Center?
The Early Literacy Center helps young children build the skills they need to become successful readers now, while laying the foundation for lifelong literacy. The Center operates Reach Out and Read (ROR), a national program introduced to Arizona in 1997 by Southwest Human Development, to help fight illiteracy in impoverished communities. The Center also works to create libraries and literacy centers in child care facilities that cannot afford books. Since its inception in 2005, the program’s goal is to create libraries in 500 child care centers serving low-income areas in Maricopa County. Critically, child care teachers receive training in how to promote early literacy skills in young children and how to help parents develop these skills at home.
