Agency Details:

The Early Literacy Program

The mission of The Early Literacy Program is to promote reading to children every day to build language and learning skills for life.

Description:
The Early Literacy Program wants to ensure that every child will have the experience of being read to daily, the opportunity to participate in a variety of language building activities, and thus enter school with the necessary pre-reading skills to succeed in life.

As a program of the Children and Families Commission of Orange County, the Early Literacy Program (ELP) is greatly advancing the Commission’s mission to ensure that Orange County’s children are healthy and ready to learn when they enter school.

The Early Literacy Program trains volunteers to read to children in pediatric waiting rooms that participate in the Reach out and Read Program.As a result, volunteers will have the tools to teach good reading habits by modeling to parents. Volunteers will also be able to successfully communicate information to parents on literacy and creating literacy-rich environments in the home.

In addition to providing literacy-rich experiences to children, ELP also raises funds to purchase books for children and takes in donated books from the community to give away for free. Access to books and information provided to parents on the importance of early literacy have been some of our most effective strategies in equipping underprivileged children with the tools they need to succeed in school. Our activities help young children in Orange County, California and their families improve achievement of literacy in listening, speaking, reading and writing.

History:
Since 2005 the Early Literacy Program has read to over 77,000 children in clinic or community settings. ELP has also distributed over 18,000 books to children within the community, and over 21,000 parents and care givers have received information regarding literacy from the ELP.

Contact person: Sophie Le, Volunteer Coordinator, (phone), (email)

Main office number: (714) 285-2320
Office fax number: (714) 285-2325

Address:

2101 East 4th Street, Suite 160B Santa Ana, CA 92705 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.earlyliteracyprogramoc.org

Last updated on October 21, 2009