Media Relations
News Releases
For Release Upon Receipt - August 24, 2000
Contact:
Christopher Smalley, 617-638-8491, christopher.smalley@bmc.org
THE ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION AWARDS BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE $300,000 FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD LITERACYGRANT TO SUPPORT REACH OUT AND READ
(Boston, Mass.) — Boston, MA - Boston University School of Medicine recently received a $300,000 grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the continued support of Reach Out and Read (ROR)-a national literacy program. The funds will be used to help expand ROR and to train pediatricians and other ROR providers in early childhood literacy development.
"We are grateful to The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for their generous support of Reach Out and Read," said Barry Zuckerman, MD, chairman of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine, and founding director, Reach Out and Read. "Through the continued support of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we are able to ensure that low income children will continue to benefit from quality literacy programs."
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, NJ, is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grantmaking in three goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse-tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.
Reach Out and Read is the nation's leading pediatric literacy program. Its mission is to make literacy a standard part of pediatric primary care. Founded in 1989 as a single program at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center), Reach Out and Read has expanded to clinics in more than 700 hospitals and health centers in 48 states. To this end, ROR provides new books for children ages 6 months to 5 years and education and training to parents, medical personnel and literacy volunteers relating to literacy and how books, reading and being read to contribute to healthy child development.
— 30 —
