WHYY Ready to Learn Service

The WHYY Ready to Learn (RTL) Service, in existence since 1994, is based upon a sturdy pyramid of programs, public workshops and partnerships. Each week more than 450,000 children watch children’s educational programs on TV12. WHYY’s commitment to children’s educational programming embodies the partnership role the station plays in the healthy, cognitive and emotional development of our children in the Greater Philadelphia region, Southern New Jersey and Delaware.

It begins with eleven hours of children’s programming broadcast each day on TV12. Using the broadcast schedule as a base, trained and certified WHYY staff members ran 65 Ready to Learn workshops in community settings for parents, early child educators or childcare providers during FY’03. The RTL Workshops, which are offered in both Spanish and English, served 5,000 children this year, and were used to teach adults media literacy to help increase the positive educational impact TV has on children.

The effectiveness of WHYY’s RTL service was complemented in FY’03 with the First Books project and Family Focus seminars. WHYY’s First Books project continues again next year as WHYY distributes 300 free books during the school year to children who would not otherwise have any or enough books to read. Next year, the focus of the family seminars shifts to "In the Spirit of the Family" with WHYY-FM’s Dr. Dan Gottlieb, which will explore substantive issues confronting families such as bi-racial, bi-cultural and bi-lingual parenting matters. For broader impact, the "In the Spirit of Family" dialogues will be hosted through live events and will be broadcast on Dr. Gottlieb’s weekly radio show, Voices in the Family.

Clifford and friends at WHYY's Halloween party for Y Kids Club members.

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