Reach Out and Read Minnesota

Books Build Better Brains. Books Bring Families Together. 

2022 update: 

Let's be honest: this is a tough time for healthcare providers and families with young children. Right now, our program can do something big for both of those groups. With just a book, a smile, and some gentle guidance, we can bring a spark of joy into the exam room. We can take a pause from the chaos of the world and create a space to be together and learn together. We can take time to focus on what matters most: supporting our youngest learners and building a brighter future for them.

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 doctors and nurses 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 approximately 175,000 children across the state at more than 300 clinics. We know we can reach more children with your support!

Your support helps us to: 

• Provide more books to children at clinics in our most underserved communities, including books in Spanish, Hmong, Somali, Ojibwe, and Karen.
• Train more doctors and nurses across the state in our innovative, evidence based program. 
• Provide more meaningful support to our partner clinics and reach new clinics in every corner of the state. 

Reach Out and Read seeks to give young children a foundation for success through the powerful effects of reading and sharing a story with a loved one. To do this, we partner with doctors and nurses across the state to incorporate books into children's routine pediatric care visits and encourage families to read together.