About Us

The mission of the Early Literacy Program (ELP) is to promote reading to children every day to build language and learning skills for life. Our activities help Orange County’s young children and their families to achieve literacy in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. We believe that access to books, showing parents the importance of early literacy, are some of the most effective strategies in helping underprivileged children to start school prepared to succeed. Toward that end, we distribute thousands of books and resources into the Orange County community.

ELP achieves its mission to reach parents and children in a variety of ways:

Program and Services – ELP supports community literacy programs throughout Orange County, including Reach Out and Read (ROR), Home-Based Activities Building Language Acquisition (HABLA), and county school districts. Support includes resources, free books, fundraising, and grant writing, and storage and distribution services for the handling of books.
Volunteer – ELP recruits volunteers read to children in community settings throughout Orange County. After a rigorous screening process, we train readers to use best literacy practices with children and parents. Every month, we distribute to families thousands of brochures and resources about literacy, developmental milestones, and community resources available in their area.
Gently Used Book Program – ELP encourages and solicits donations of gently used books that are then sorted by age, rehabilitated, and redistributed back out into the community. Our readers not only read to children, but they try to make sure every child leaves with a book to call his or her own. While our focus is on younger children ages 0-5, many school-age books are also donated, and we make sure to distribute those as well.

Community Outreach

The Early Literacy Program is always looking for new ways to support literacy in the community. Supporting local community events and hosting special family reading events such as ‘Read for the Record’ and ‘From A to Zoo’ has accelerated ELP’s ability to spread important information about early literacy development. By collaborating with schools, libraries, and community based literacy programs, we are working to strengthen Orange County’s early literacy network of services and program.