City of Santa Barbara

The Santa Barbara Public Library System will incorporate untapped family and community resources to address persistent achievement gaps, motivate reluctant readers, and reinforce essential early literacy skills through “Juntos Leemos/Read Together.” Juntos Leemos will implement and evaluate new, engaging programs with a social reading focus to target families whose parents have limited literacy skills. Whether in families, afterschool programs, or other venues, the goal of this project is to create a community where children are read to and, in turn, read to others. Parents will also receive support The project team will implement and evaluate new, engaging programs with a social reading focus to equip older children to read to younger children and adults, place children at the center of their own learning processes, and provide parents support in providing early literacy experiences for younger children.