The Vancouver Sun's Raise-a-Reader's fundraising campaign helps Vancouver libraries to foster literacy
Credit to Author: Susan Lazaruk| Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2019 19:03:21 +0000
Alex and Anatta Watts have been reading to their son, Sequoyah Laxha Heaven Watts, since before he was born, and they’re continuing now even though he’s not old enough to read or even hold a book.
“Before Sequoyah was born, Alex strived to read to him in utero every night,” said Anatta. “We’re really committed to Sequoyah’s education. We mean that in a holistic sense.”
She said she and her husband see literacy as a way for their son to become an independent, critical thinker and help him to become someone who will serve his community.
“We’re training Sequoyah to become a warrior,” she said.
The couple have been taking the 14-month-old to the Vancouver Public Library’s (VPL) Britannia branch, where he’s exposed to reading and books through the Mother Goose program, which benefits from funding raised through The Vancouver Sun’s Raise-a-Reader campaign.
The Mother Goose program is an “enhanced storytime program that supports early language and literacy development” while fostering “attachment and social inclusion” for families, said Maryn Ashdown, associate director of the neighbourhood and youth services for the VPL.
Alex and Anatta Watts with their son, Sequoyah Watts. The Wattses are a Raise-a-Reader family who benefit from the Vancouver Public Library’s Mother Goose program.
Families must be referred to the program and they attend weekly for an hour. The parents develop literacy education skills through songs, rhymes and stories, and they’re encouraged to read to their kids at home, she said. And the session includes a snack and social time to build social connections.
The Wattses love that they can attend the Mother Goose program as a family, and they foster their son’s literacy skills at home. They say even at his age, Sequoyah recognizes certain sounds in his favourite stories and verbalizes along with them.
“And now he’s pointing to different images,” said Anatta.
They are also introducing him to their Native languages; Anatta is Cherokee and Alex is Nisga’a, because “those languages need to be reclaimed,” she said.
And the parents are both committed to offering their son books instead of electronic devices. They both agree “no screen time until at least he’s five years old,” said Anatta, because they worry that electronic devices don’t foster literacy.
VPL also offers a Man in the Moon literacy program that’s similar to the Mother Goose program but is geared to fathers and male caregivers, said Ashdown. And the Alligator Pie Series program is geared toward outreach to the community, to daycares or preschools.
The programs reach thousands of children and are delivered in partnership with a community agency, someone who understands the families’ experiences and context, said Ashdown.
The target families are those who are “vulnerable, struggling with poverty, isolated, integrating as newcomers or refugees, (suffering from) postpartum depression and mental-health issues,” she said.
She said the VPL depends on the funding from the Raise-a-Reader fund because “it enhances our reach” into the community, she said.
Since its launch in 1997, Raise-a-Reader has provided more than $18 million to promote literacy in B.C.
You can make a donation any time. Here’s how:
• Online at raiseareader.com
• By phone, at 604.681.4199
• By cheque, payable to:
Raise-a-Reader
1125 Howe St., #980
Vancouver, B.C. V6Z 2K8
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