Distinguished Professor Lesley Mandel- Morrow: Director of the Center for Literacy Development has been working with Dr. Manuel Jimenez MD. pediatrician at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Dr. Jimenez who is leading this project is a strong promoter of Reach Out and Read. This is a pediatric organization that promotes literacy development in the practice of pediatric medicine.  Dr. Morrow has contributed her expertise to the developing the family literacy development program.

The project just received a $2,000,000 grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality  to promote school readiness for Latinx children with a bilingual curriculum that uses health and wellness themes to teach language and literacy skills to pre-schoolers. The children in the program are from New Brunswick who are dual-language learners from low-income backgrounds. This is a population that the U.S. Department of Education considers at elevated risk for school readiness.

Faculty from Rutgers-Camden’s Department of World Languages and the medical school’s Eric B. Chandler Health Center also are involved in the program, which is supported in part by a global health seed grant from Rutgers Global Health Institute. Click the link below to learn more!