Reading Legacies

our mission

To facilitate supportive relationships for children through family and friends reading aloud with them. 

our vision

That all children will feel the security of caring adult relationships and develop a love of reading through the read-aloud experience.

our fundraising focus

This year, our focus is on raising money for our Book Bridges program, which serves to strengthen relationships between family members separated by incarceration or drug rehabilitation treatment through the read-aloud experience.

Through the Book Bridges program, parents are trained to read aloud to their children on video, forming healthy and lasting bonds and learning about the importance of reading aloud with children.

Volunteer facilitators offer tips and tools to make the shared reading experience fun and valuable to the child. After the parents read aloud on video, the video link and the storybook are sent to the children at home to be enjoyed time and again.

what are some of the benefits, according to participants?

"I feel so happy and proud cause I know she will love it and because I have never done this before" - Incarcerated father

"I feel happy about the chance to interact with my family. I felt proud to be a dad"- Incarcerated father

"It makes me happy that I am able to help and do something for my daughter while I am incarcerated"- Incarcerated father

"It reminded me how important it is to be a positive role model. Reading to my daughter will help motivate her to read and write about it" - Incarcerated mother

"I have always loved to read; however my schedule made it difficult to read to my child. This workshop made me realize even if it's for 5 minutes it's important to connect with them in a way they will understand." -Incarcerated mother

"I find I look forward to this program because the power books have is huge. My son enjoys the gift and also gets to practice his reading with meaningful books." -Incarcerated mother

the goals of the Book Bridges program are to...

(1) Increase children’s interest in reading 

(2) Increase the habit of reading in families 

(3) Strengthen connections between children and the family members who read with them 

(4) Increase parents’ awareness of the importance of reading with children regularly

(5) Increase participants' feelings of empowerment and self-worth, while decreasing feelings of stress, anger, and/or anxiety

Any donations that we receive through San Diego Gives will contribute to 

the continuation and growth of the Book Bridges program. 

thank you for your support!