Spread the Word Nevada

Spread the Word Nevada is dedicated to advancing early childhood literacy by placing books into the homes of children within Nevada's at-risk, low-income communities. Through community collaboration, mentorship and family partnership programs, Spread the Word Nevada fosters reading and language development opportunities ultimately leading to brighter academic and economic futures for these children.

Spread the Word Nevada “adopts" elementary schools in Nevada where at least 80% of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch. These are schools where the majority of the families are living at or near the poverty line. Families that are struggling for basic needs cannot afford to purchase books, seldom have home libraries and sadly, for many reasons, have not formed a culture of reading in the households. Upon adoption of the Kids to Kids program, each child in the school receives a book bag and chooses five books to take home and begin building a home library. We know that not owning books is one of the single biggest barriers to not reading proficiently by the third grade.

By helping to create books that “live" at home we assist with fostering a greater love for reading and the tools to practice skills learned in the classroom. Each school adoption includes a monthly family literacy program called Breakfast with Books. This program is a before or after school family engagement event that includes students attending with an adult member/s of the family for a modeled storytime, light breakfast or snack, a chance to win a prize to motivate the students, and literacy activity sheets. Each member of the family attending the program is invited to choose and take home a book. Mentoring through our Books & Buddies program takes place at several on-site school centers designated for volunteers from the community to pair with a struggling reader for 30-45 minutes per week. This program has shown remarkable results in raising reading levels and confidence. Books on Break is a summer program designed to help avoid the “summer slide" during the months that children are not in school. Sites are identified through a partnership with our local food bank to serve children that are gathered at various places during the summer days for meals, essentially feeding both the body and the mind by providing books and storytime.

Spread the Word Nevada has shown remarkable results and growth over the last 20 years. Co-founders, Laurie Hartig and Lisa Habighorst are both former educators and have long understood the need for these services within the school district where they both taught. Clark County School District is the fifth-largest school district in the country yet sadly, ranks nearly last in the nation for education. Poverty is a reality in Nevada and Spread the Word Nevada joins many other nonprofit organizations that are addressing the results of children living in low-income communities.

Our Program Director, Books & Buddies Coordinators, and many support staff are former educators with years of experience in teaching and knowledge of Clark County School District. Spread the Word Nevada has a long and strong partnership with Clark County School District, its Partnership Office, and Superintendent. The programs we offer are eagerly sought and welcomed into 62 schools as of September 2020. Sustaining these schools throughout the years is made possible by the dedicated work of our board of directors and staff, long-time support from foundations, and consistent corporate funders as well as passionate individual donors and volunteers.

As new schools are added that are in need of services, Spread the Word Nevada makes it our mission to eventually reach all schools in our community where children can benefit from these valuable literacy programs. Over the last 20 years, we have grown from delivering a few boxes of books to one school from the trunks of our co-founders' cars to now placing over 59,000 books to at-risk children every month during the school year! Lives are changing for students and students are sharing the magic of books with their own families, frequently teaching their parents how to read. We are extremely proud of the broad reach that a single book can have when a child has ownership of a world within the pages of a story.

We were proud to adopt 2 elementary schools in Reno/Sparks out of our new office and warehouse in Northern Nevada. As we steadily grow in our programming we continue to provide excellent services through the training of our staff to meet these needs in the most efficient and impactful way possible.