Ames Morning Rotary began promoting early childhood literacy in 2000 with a Rotary Children's Opportunity Grant. Every year we pursue literacy initiatives with community partners. Early results were encouraging. The percent of children entering kindergarten in Ames with basic literacy skills increased from 65% in 2008 to 80% in 2013.
Rotarians continue to work with a network of local leaders to develop programs to improve early literacy. We recently collaborated with Raising Readers in Story County and Iowa State Extension and Outreach to create this Community Literacy Toolkit, which can be viewed or downloaded at no cost.
Our Early Literacy History highlights how Ames Morning Rotarians initiated many community-based early literacy programs with Story County partners.
This Early Literacy Chart shows 16 Story County community-based early literacy programs and the ages of children they serve.
