Reading for Healthy Families

Status: complete


Purpose: The RFHF program, led by the Oregon Commission on Children and Families and the Oregon State Library, was designed to improve early literacy outcomes for high-risk children. Healthy Start home visitors and librarians were trained to implement the “Every Child Ready to Read at Your Library” curriculum in all Oregon counties over a 3-year period. The goal of the evaluation was to document program outcomes, including frequency of parent-child literacy activities and family engagement with books and library services. The evaluation also assessed program implementation, including barriers and facilitators to delivering the curriculum to high-risk families.

Project Design:

  • Pre/Post training surveys for staff receiving curriculum assessing changes in practice.
  • Comparison of family outcomes for those families with workers trained in curriculum compared to those families with workers not yet trained in curriculum, including:
      • Parent-child reading engagement
      • Early reading practices
      • Library use

Funding Source: Grants from the Oregon Community Foundation and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to the Oregon Commission on Children and Families (OCCF). Evaluation contract from OCCF.

Start Date: August 2008

Project Team

Principal Investigator

Beth Green , Ph.D.

Project Director

Jerod Tarte, M.A.

Project Staff

Jennifer Aborn, B.S.

Reports and Publications:

Tarte, J. M., & Aborn, J. A. (June 2012) Reading for Healthy Families: Final Evaluation Report. Submitted to Oregon Commission on Children and Families. NPC Research: Portland, OR.
Report /