Our Programs

Together, these programs have served the Southern Arizona community for over 50 years. Combined, they offer a continuum of services from birth through adulthood and create a unique opportunity to imbed art and culture into literacy programs.


Literacy for Life Coalition (est. 2008) is a coalition of 35 government, nonprofit, business, media, funding, and educational organizations that understand increasing the literacy level of our community is the single best way to ensure a prosperous economy and an improved quality of life for everyone in Tucson.

Literacy Volunteers of Tucson (est. 1961) transforms lives and enriches our community by teaching adults to read, write and speak English.

  • Basic Literacy
  • English Language Acquisition for Adults

Celebrating 50th anniversary this year; 1,904 students enrolled and 514 volunteers in 2009-2010; over 39,000 volunteer hours donated.

Reach Out and Read Southern Arizona (est. 2000) prepares children from birth through five years of age to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together. Over 60 pediatric programs, serving 43,000 of Southern Arizona’s children, provide early literacy coaching to parents so that children grow up with books and a love of reading.

  • Trains medical providers to integrate literacy into well child visits
  • Medical providers give new books to children and early literacy coaching to parents
  • Creating a literacy-rich environment both in the home and doctor’s waiting rooms

Gives more than 65,000 new, developmentally and culturally appropriate books to families in Cochise, Pima and Santa Cruz Counties and the Tohono O’odham and Yaqui Nations annually.

Reading Seed (est. 1995) helps children learn to read so they can read to learn.

  • Trains volunteer Reading Coaches to work with students in 1st – 3rd grade who are reading below grade level.
  • Emphasizes reading as a positive experience in a non-judgmental environment.
  • Increases confidence, vocabulary and reading comprehension in elementary students.
  • Reading Seed Lending Library makes “high interest, low reading level” K-12 resources available to Reading Coaches and other literacy providers, as well as to teachers, parents and librarians throughout Pima County.
  • Provides free books to students to encourage independent reading.

Last school year, 1,000 volunteer coaches served over 2,500 children in 9 school districts and 100 elementary schools. More than 20,000 free books were distributed in the community and over 29,000 volunteer hours were donated through the Reading Seed program.

Stories That Soar! (est. 2002) is a literacy and performing arts program that brings children’s original stories to life through the talents of professional performers.

  • Stories that Soar! Live Theatre (grades K – 5/6 and communities)
  • StorySharing Curriculum and After School Programs (grades K – 12)
  • Share More Children’s Books (grades K – 12)
  • StorySharing Professional Development Workshops (Adults)

In 2010, 5,600 K-5/6 students wrote 6,068 stories for the Magic Box; over 7,500 audience members attended Stories That Soar! productions; 75 books were made for our Share More Book project; 710 youth engaged in our StoryShare curriculum.