About

Words Alive is a non-profit organization that helps children, teens and adults discover the joy of reading and how books can add meaning to their lives. With a primary focus on San Diego County’s low-income, at-risk, and ethnically diverse populations, Words Alive currently serves more than 500 children and teens each month with its Adolescent Book Group and Early Literacy Intervention programs. We positively affect the lives of hundreds more children, youth and adults in our community with our Community Reading Initiative, which reaches out to parents of preschool age children with read-aloud workshops and collects and distributes books to those most in need in our community. Our programs are made possible thanks to our 125-plus member volunteer force, which gives thousands of hours each year in service to our organization.

Words Alive does not teach individuals how to read. Instead, through shared reading experiences, our volunteers convey their passion for literature and inspire program participants to read for pleasure and become lifelong readers and learners.
Our mission is to inspire a commitment to reading and develop shared reading experiences for children, youth and adults. We accomplish this by creating and supporting:
•Targeted programs for underserved communities;
•Community learning forums;
•Community-wide reading projects;
•Model reading programs; and
•Networks for communicating about reading.

Our vision is to create a community where:
•The passion for and sharing of reading provides a common language for all people;
•Individuals are widely encouraged to cherish the intrinsic value of reading;
•The varying elements of the community—political, social and corporate—use literature as a springboard for communication amongst themselves and between each other;
•People look to reading as a key to success in the social, educational and personal and career growth arenas; and
•Existing vehicles of communication and interaction—media, internet, civic groups incorporate literature and its lessons as a matter of course.