Welcome to Read First

Imagine a whole community working together to increase the number of parents/caregivers who read regularly to their children!

Missouri’s Read First! communities are doing just that.

Through Read First!, the Missouri Humanities Council and our partners strive to create a culture of family reading. We do it by providing READ from the START programs for parents and caregivers, funding for activities that encourage family reading, and support and guidance to agencies and organizations collaborating to increase the number of parents reading to children. Read First! also raises the awareness of the community about the importance of family reading and encourages organizations to actively support the efforts of parents to provide positive interactions with books and children.

History of Read First!

In 2008, ten communities (Butler County, Cuba, LaPlata, Macon, Marion County, Moberly, Mountain View, Savannah, Tarkio and Washington) were selected to participate in Read First! Each developed an array of activities to encourage parents and caregivers to read to their youngsters, and to get books into the homes of babies and preschool children. In the second year of the project, these Read First! communities continued the momentum that started in the pilot year. In 2010, MHC has added Springfield to the list of Read First! communities. Now in the fourth and final year of Read First!, Joplin has joined the list of Read First! communities.

2012 Read First! Music Mayhem Workshop

Music Mayhem workshops are going on across the state! Music is a creative way to get children involved in playing with language and exploring different ways of communicating. Each participant receives Jackie Silberg’s book, “The I Can’t Sing Book for Grownups (who can’t carry a tune in a paper bag but want to do music with young children.)” Read more.

To find additional Read First! events in one of these communities, please check out the calendar on this website.