Toast for Kids Charity Inc (T4K) was officially formed in 2018. Their aim is to break the cycle of poverty, poor health, social exclusion and helplessness through and by supporting emergency food relief, food security and education. Tasmania continues to have the highest proportion of 15–74-year-olds reading at a level 2 or below, with 50% of the state’s population having inadequate reading skills for their daily life needs.  

The campaign ‘Read Aloud to Your Child Every Day’, seeks to remind parents to read aloud to their child as part of their daily routine from the new-born stage. A baby hearing language, different tones, noises, and seeing different facial expressions, all assists in the development of a child’s brain. Reading and being read to builds listening, memory, and vocabulary skills, and gives babies information about the world around them, preparing them for their educational journey and future life.  

This campaign is reaching out to institutes, schools, governments, parent groups, parents, children, carers, speech pathologists, writer groups, book and reading advocates, presenting the opportunity to partner with the effort of adopting and promoting the one message: “Read aloud to your child every day”, using an electronic banner. Through this coalition it will provide a consistent and positive message that encourages a culture of reading aloud to children every day, helping to lift literacy rates. 

To continue these efforts T4Ks are also looking to create a double-sided printed bookmark as a promotional giveaway to create community discussion, expand partnerships, open doors and remind parents to read aloud to their child every day. Each bookmark will have a matte/glossy finish. Our donation of $5,000 will help create approximately 70,000 bookmarks.