DHS Employees To Read to Children at Child Care Centers and Elsewhere

(Washington, DC) -- Department of Human Services (DHS) Director Yvonne Gilchrist announced today that DHS is launching the DHS Reads Initiative in April 2004 to help youth in the District ages 6 months to 13-years-old develop better reading and writing skills. DHS employees are being encouraged to volunteer to read to children close to their job sites at child care development centers, family child care homes, and before and after school programs throughout the District, and at the Oak Hill Youth Center in Laurel, MD.

"We are launching DHS Reads as an ongoing effort to help uplift the lives of young children by emphasizing the value of developing good reading and language skills. Studies have shown that children who are read to at an early age are more interested in reading. DHS wants to encourage this," said Gilchrist.

Gilchrist added that children in low-income families in the District served by DHS' Office of Early Childhood Development (OECD) and Income Maintenance Administration (IMA) are particularly at risk of not being read to by their parents. This is because many low-income parents are struggling to financially support their families and may unintentionally not take time to read to their children.

DHS employees will be allowed to use a portion of their workday to read to children at least once a month for a maximum of 30 minutes and will be granted Administrative Leave to do so. DHS has more than 2,000 employees and will celebrate, in April 2004, the nationally recognized "Month of the Young Child" through the DHS Reads Initiative. The Hotel Association of Washington, DC will partner with DHS to implement DHS Reads.

Before being assigned to a child care facility in the city close to their job sites, DHS employees will receive training on how to effectively read aloud to children from the Early Childhood Development Institute at the University of the District of Columbia. Officials from the Institute will meet with DHS employees at designated job sites to provide training. The Child Care Committee of the DHS Labor Management Partnership Council established and will manage the DHS Reads Initiative.