Project title
Description of initiative
Born to Read is a program to enhance the inclination to read in children from a very early age. Born in 1999, is promoted by the professional and cultural organizations of librarians and paediatricians: Associazione Culturale Pediatri (ACP), Associazione Italiana Biblioteche (AIB) and Centro per la Salute del Bambino (CSB).
Born to Read is a nationwide program which aims at constantly involving the community in order to give children a better chance to develop from an intellectual and emotional point of view. The organization of the project is based on a strong decentralization, on the establishment of a network which aims at becoming ever more widespread in order to reach the greatest possible number of local realities. The network includes librarians, pediatricians, educators, teachers, associations willing to put their energies into the project. At a local level a commitment is undertaken to implement the project with the greatest flexibility and adaptation to the different situations. There are more than 500 local projects covering about 35% of the national population, with the participation of 8000 professionals among librarians, pediatricians, social/health professionals, nurseries’ and playschool’s educators. The national committee, composed of 5 librarians and 5 pediatricians, takes care of conforming local actions to the inspiring principles of the program, looking after public relations and communications at a national level, the publication of informative and promotional material. The training of the local project promoters is one of the most important tasks of the national committee. Another important activity of the national committee is caring for and producing bibliographical tools to guide readers among the publishing novelties every three years.
Born to Read strategy to reach the goal is to set up local working groups, supported by public libraries and pediatricians, which are involved in raising awareness about importance of reading to children among all families so that reading is perceived as a cultural and social improvement for children and indirectly for all the adults implied. This activity has also been oriented towards increasing and updating the library collections for children, kindling an interest in many libraries and in public opinion for the need of public cultural services for children.
Born to Read has stimulated a great activity of selection and suggestion of the best books for children under 6 both at a national and local level. Born to Read has produced national materials which can be given to families (a leaflet with suggestions on how and what to read to children and bookmarks) and to professionals (a brochure with a complete presentation of the project and the materials available).
Themes: Culture and...
Keywords
Target group
Cultural field
Timeframe
Sources of funding
Results, benefits, impact and lessons learnt
In summary, the data collected on the basis of sufficiently homogeneous indicators and on a comparable sample for territorial distribution and social characteristics shows very clearly that exposure to the NpL programme has indeed changed the practice of reading in the family very significantly. And that the program has also spread among families with a low level of education.
To this information, can be added the data concerning the extension as production, distribution and sales, of children's publishing in Italy, clear evidence of the extension of the children's book market, both as a direct induced (books purchased and distributed by NpL), and indirect (books purchased by families).
Similar programmes have also been activated in other countries. The reasons for this lie in the simplicity of the central message, in the feasibility of such programmes and certainly also in the fact that around this idea it is possible to coagulate very different resources capable of contributing to a common and community end.
Judging by the numbers but also by the testimonies and experiences, NpL has produced not only important changes in the knowledge and practices of families and the benefits for the development of children that science has widely documented, but also opportunities for meeting and activating communities, in small municipalities as in the suburbs of large cities.
With an approach that has been able to involve everyone, without distinction, albeit with permanent inequalities and differences between different territories and social classes. One of the data that emerges from the evaluations is that these differences, for the practice of reading, have been reduced over time, thanks to the ability of operators and volunteers to take the program everywhere.