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Last updated on October 7, 2008

Vision: Page Ahead empowers disadvantaged children by advocating literacy and fostering a love of reading. Mission: Page Ahead promotes reading activities and provides new books for at-risk children to enrich their lives and strengthen our communities. The program builds upon one simple and astounding fact that being read to, as a youngster, is the number one predictor of academic success.

Description:
Page Ahead helps at-risk children reach their full potential by providing them with the inspiration to read. To accomplish this, Page Ahead: 1) Provides new books for at-risk children to choose, keep and treasure. 2) Encourages parents, caregivers, and community volunteers to read with children. 3) Helps schools and social service agencies to run successful literacy programs. 4) Holds motivational reading events to inspire children's love of reading. The Department of Education has proven that having age appropriate books in the home and being read to as a child are the two most important predictors of academic success, books being the single most important factor. Page Ahead understands that in order to sustain the impact of the book distribution there must be an adult to advocate for literacy as well. Page Ahead promotes relationships between the children served by the program, their parents, and supporting community members through reading activities. Page Ahead serves children between the ages of birth and twelve in over 80% of the counties across Washington State. Annually, sites apply to Page Ahead to receive new books for their children and support for their literacy programs. Page Ahead chooses sites to serve based on the need of the children, the quality of reading events planned for each book distribution, and the site's proposed method for involving parents in their child's education.

History:
Page Ahead began in 1990 as a Leadership Tomorrow Project called, "Books for Kids". Its aim was to break the interlinked chains of poverty and illiteracy by helping at-risk children get the attention and the materials they need early in life to become strong readers and successful students. To date we have distributed over 1.5 million books to over 500,000 children throughout Washington State by working through elementary schools, preschools, childcare centers, early childhood programs, and social service agencies.

Contact people:

Jacki Crowther, Book Program Manager, (phone), (email) LeAnne Chow, Community Outreach Coordinator, (phone), (email) Susan Dibble, Executive Director, (phone), (email) Shana Faulkner, Family Involvement Program Manager, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (206) 461-7370

Address:

1130 NW 85th Street Seattle, WA 98117 This location is handicap accessible (See a map)

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

Directions:

FROM TACOMA: 1)I-5 North. 2)Take the N 85TH ST exit, EXIT 172, toward AURORA AVE N. 3)Stay STRAIGHT to go onto N 85TH ST. 4)End at 1130 NW 85th St Seattle, WA 98117-3318 FROM EVERETT: 1)Merge onto I-5 S. 2)Take the N 85TH ST exit, EXIT 172, toward NE 80TH ST. 3)Take the N. 85TH ST. ramp toward AURORA AVE. N. 4)Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto N 85TH ST. 5)End at 1130 NW 85th St Seattle, WA 98117-3318

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