Our Impact

Program Overview

Founded in 2001 to share the joy and power of reading, New Haven Reads partners with the community to provide free one-on-one tutoring, educational family support, and a book bank to empower aspiring readers to master the literacy skills needed to thrive in school and life. New Haven Reads serves students from Pre-K to 12th grade from Greater New Haven. The vast majority of our students are from low-income households and 96% are minorities. Tutoring is offered at four New Haven locations for grades one through twelve, and is supported by over 325 trained volunteer tutors. All programs are offered at no cost to participants. The students in our Pre-K and Kindergarten programs learn important pre­-literacy skills so they will be successful in first grade. Our Book Bank distributes thousands of free, gently used books annually to the community and also provides free school field trips.

The Need

A child’s ability to read is one of the best predictors of their future success and is highly correlated with high school graduation rates, health outcomes, and job and income prospects. According to the 2022 state standardized testing, 84% of New Haven third graders are reading below grade level. Our long waiting list, now over 150 children, demonstrates the need for our programs. As an organization, we seek to help create a community of confident readers through early, focused intervention and increasing access to books.

Through the Years

Since New Haven Reads began in 2001, we have provided tutoring services to more than 7,000 students and distributed over 2.5 million books back into the community, thanks to the help of over 6,000 volunteers.

The Need

The ability to read transforms a child’s life by giving them the skills to succeed in school and work. Having books at home drastically increases student academic success, regardless of income or education level. However, in the Greater New Haven community more than two thirds of students are not reading at grade level, and low income families are more likely to live in “book deserts.” As an organization, we seek to help create a community of confident readers through early, focused intervention and increasing access to books.

Our Students

Our free programs are open to all, regardless of income level, and the only prerequisite to enrollment is that a student must be struggling with reading. Our students come from communities across the Greater New Haven area. Almost three quarters come from New Haven itself, and nearly 80% come from low income families.

Demographics

Demographics

Last year, 91% of our students said that New Haven Reads makes them better readers.  

CORE Test

To ensure the efficacy of our programs and track student progress, we test some of our students with the Consortium on Reading Excellence (CORE) Test twice a year. 2020-2021 CORE Test Highlights
  • 100% of students tested improved their literacy scores

Book Bank Numbers

In 2022-2023 the Book Bank:
  • hosted 86 field trips where classes visited our Book Bank and received five books to take home and listened to stories from our volunteers,
  • prepared 352 book orders for 103 organizations and schools in Connecticut,
  • gave 31 teachers 3,677 books for their classrooms and students during the bi-annual Teacher Open House events,
  • Volunteers continue to fill local “book boxes” with thousands of NHR books to build home libraries