Tandem, Partners in Early Learning

As a classroom teacher, I really appreciated organizations like Tandem as they provided high quality, age appropriate books for the families in my classroom year after year. They truly believe in the power of early literacy and consistently came on campus to demo read alouds, refill our stocks of books, as well as provided us with other resources that can support learning beyond the classroom. Thank you Tandem!

After working with Tandem on a nonprofit project, I was so impressed I decided to join their board. Tandem is one of the premier early education nonprofits in the Bay Area and works tirelessly to combat the effects of poverty and systemic racism on our youngest children. I'm proud to be a part of Tandem's effort to create an equitable and just society where all children enter school ready to succeed.

Tandem is a true asset the communities it serves. It's main programs provides books for the most needy pre-k children and follows it up with education for teachers and parents on how to read to kids. How can you not love helping children learn and develop the next generation brains?

Focus on child development is the DNA of the organization, along with a strong fiscal responsibility to be here today and tomorrow. I'm proud to be a board member for Tandem, and see it in action and the love is receives from the schools and parents it's serves.

I've served on the board of Tandem for 5 years, 3 of them as chair of the board. Tandem continues to inspire me as the staff do critical work to empower families and caregivers of young children to use books as a catalyst for early brain development and building literacy and early math skills. COVID-19 has brought out even more innovation and creativity in the staff as they move to a virtual environment and figure out new ways to reach and support families. The work of Tandem is to engage at the earliest stages of a child's development to increase the chances that children arrive at kindergarten ready to learn and be successful. It is urgently-needed social justice work and this team of professionals is top notch.

Tandem is an incredible resource in our community! As a teacher, Tandem has provided my students and families with gorgeous, culturally relevant, and thoughtfully chosen books in their Storycycles bags for years. In the summer, Tandem also provides hundreds of multilingual books to summer preschool sites across Oakland. They put books directly into the hands of children and families. Tandem also hosts excellent parent workshops to support Oakland families with developing their child's early literacy and social emotional skills. Tandem thank you for all you do!!!

As a developer/researcher at Teachers College, Columbia University, I have had the pleasure of working with Tandem on a project aimed at developing workshop materials designed to promote parents' reading of math picture books with young children. The Tandem folks are real professionals. They care deeply about parents and children; they are very creative in developing workshop materials; and they conduct great parent workshops. A wonderful organization!

Herb Ginsburg

The Tandem program has helped my students enjoy reading. In addition, their vocabulary and letter recognition are increasing. The books are interactive so the students are engaged. By sending books home every week, the families are getting involved in their child's development of early literacy skills. it is an excellent program that is supporting my students in their reading development.

Working with Tandem is an amazing experience. All the staff is incredibly professional, friendly and dedicated to helping their communities. If Tandem agrees to help with an event they've always been extremely reliable. We have never had to worry about them being less than a perfect partner from beginning to end of any project. Our staff overall lacks bilingual skills so we especially appreciate that much of the staff is able to speak and write in Spanish. Tandem, Partners in Early Learning is making great strives in creating a more literate Contra Costa County.

Tandem does a phenomenal job working with various organizations in the area as well as families in the community.

Tandem brings a lot of awareness on the importance of early literacy. They have various programs that support early literacy which makes them unique. Their story cycles help several families in child care and preschool programs to continuously have books at their homes so they can read to their kids.

They also have a big variety of workshops and trainings for teachers and families. Their fun and interactive trainings for teachers give educators in the early childhood field ideas on how to incorporate books into their daily curriculum.

This summer I had the opportunity to intern at Tandem. Throughout my time, I have been incredibly impressed with all facets of this non-profit. All staff members are deeply committed and connected to the mission of improving early literacy which shows in daily conversation and in their approach to their programs. In addition, the team has trusted me from day 1 to work on valuable projects for the organization to improve its operations and evaluations. It has been extremely rewarding to see all of the positive feedback received from clients and utilizing those to refine what we do. I have nothing but respect for Tandem and am proud to have been able to work at an organization that aligns with my personal values.

Tandem, Partners in Early Learning, is the definition of quality: a truly great resource for children, families and educators! Tandem places high-quality children's books in children's hands, making sure that all children have access to age-appropriate literature that reflects a broad range of cultures. Tandem affords the families that my school serves the opportunity to share quality books with their children at no cost. This helps our families tremendously because the majority of families we serve struggle financially.Even trips to the library can be challenging for a working family that may not have the classic 9-5, M-F job or personal transportation. Our school is also a non-profit and relies on contracts with multiple agencies and an annual fundraiser to keep us afloat. The governors budget effects us each year and some years we've barely survived (2008!). We could never afford the materials and variety of books to create our own school-to-home library but Tandem has given us this beautiful opportunity to enrich our families lives by providing them with meaningful, beautiful, developmentally-appropriate literature and expose them to ideas and cultures they may not have otherwise experienced.

We also benefit from Tandem's workshops that they present to families and educators. These workshops are so valuable because experts, such as our literacy specialist, Laura Rodriguez , share applicable information and activities regarding brain development, language and literacy development, social and emotional development and more. Having someone as fun and upbeat as Laura is wonderful because she gives information to adults in a fun, meaningful way. These workshops back-up what educators aim to teach families and it helps to have an outside expert deliver the information in a different, more hands-on way. Families leave with new skills and information and the feeling that they can help their child succeed in the best ways possible.
All our love and gratitude to Tandem and every agency and person who supports them!

We have been working with Tandem as partners in serving child development centers in the Oakland Unified School District with our one-on-one reading program, Community Reading Buddies, for many years. Tandem helped train and prepare our volunteers with interactive materials to ensure their understanding of the literacy gap our work addresses and practical tools for mentorship effectiveness. Tandem also provided age-appropriate books for us to give to the children our program serves in Oakland.

Our nonprofit has been partnering with Tandem for the past three years in a variety of projects. In everything we've done with Tandem, from family reading nights to literacy trainings of teen volunteers, we've found the staff to be thoughtful, professional, and knowledgable. Tandem has a wealth of resources that they aren't afraid to share; they are truly a community-minded organization and an asset to the Bay Area community!

Our company, UserTesting, worked with Tandem to engage the folks up at our San Francisco office. The Tandem volunteer that lead the group activity (StoryBlocks) was very engaging, personable, and made the activity a lot of fun for everyone. In addition to this, people really appreciated having an understanding of what kind of impact the project we were working on would have on the local community. The Tandem volunteer was also very accommodating and provided us with more than enough flexibility to get even more people involved during (and even after) the event than we initially planned! All in all, we had a great experience, would absolutely love to partner with Tandem again, and highly recommend reaching out to them if you'd like to make a difference in your community!

Tandem does excellent work in Early Childhood Education, with a very caring, hard-working staff. They run programs in three counties, and help with far more than just book bags. Every child should be able to read! They educate parents, medical professionals, and generally care a lot about helping to provide improved Early Childhood Education to all children.

Our group of about 35 people had SUCH a wonderful experience working with Lulu who came in to our corporate HQ in order to give back for a few hours at the end our our 2-day leadership meeting.

Not only was her "ice breaker" so much fun as we got to know one another better, but she also explained and showed us where the Storyblocks that we created, who they would be going to and how they would help those in our community.

So thankful for all of the dedication and beneficial work that Tandem is doing throughout the San Francisco bay community! The community is so lucky to have you.

I give to Tandem because I loved reading books as a kid, and want every kid to have that wonderful experience! I'm so impressed with all they do, and know my donation will be used to "spark joy" for thousands of families. Thanks Tandem!

Ive been volunteering with Tandem for a number of months and I love it. Tandem is committed to improving local early childhood education and is super effective at it. I’ve been super impressed with their programs! From my experience with other nonprofits, tandem is amazing!

I have been volunteering with Tandem for a couple years now and only started donating this past year. I recently volunteered at their office in the Bayview in August 2018 and had a great time! Their staff were well-organized and had plenty of work for me to help out with. I got to make some StoryBlocks to give away to families as well as did some decorating and admin work in the office (we finalized and hung up some artwork and organized some children's books). It was easy to coordinate a time with Julie and they were accommodating of my schedule. I highly encourage other folks looking to make an impact in the SF Bay Area to get in touch with them and get involved. Keep up the great work Tandem!

The Museum of Children's Arts (MOCHA) has had the honor to collaborate with Tandem, Partners in Early Learning through our Library Education and Arts Program. Their ability to involve parents and children in the world of literacy and early learning through storytelling is a vital component to the development of young minds. Our mission to a hands on approach to learning aligns with their commitment to engage parents and children in the process of developing children that can be communicators, critical thinkers and agents of change.

The Tandem Bookbag program provides exciting and age appropriate books for the parents of my students to make reading at home a positive experience. The books are free for the parents to use, therefore they will be more likely to read to their child on a consistent basis.
I teach students with autism and an IEP (individualized education plan). Parents are involved in developing their child's educational plan. The Tandem bookbag program provides a mean of helping school districts meet state standards by partnering with parents and involving them directly in their child's education.

As a Tandem employee, I can't say how proud I am to work for an organization influencing impactful change in the community. Tandem's commitment to serving families with high-quality programs, as well as the commitment to supporting employee's professional development and goals makes this one of the best places to work and serve.

I love making StoryBlocks with Tandem! They come to our office, and lead us through this fun activity while sharing how the toys will be used to bolster literacy in our community. My colleagues and I have fun, and know we're giving back to kids. Tandem - Keep up the great work!

Speaking as a board member, here is what I value most about Tandem as an organization and what inspires me to continue my involvement:
-The Executive Director is not only visible and vocal as a representative of Tandem but is a real public champion for Tandem and their work.
-As a board member, we are very clear about our responsibilities and we all take them seriously.
-The board is a diverse group of people that I truly believe is a reflection of the various communities that Tandem serves. And I believe that Tandem has worked to create a board with intention taking into consideration the skills and experience of their members and how they can support the needs of Tandem as an organization.

I have only been impressed with Tandem. Their read alouds to students are incredibly animated, engaging, and just the spark students need to love learning. Attending their teacher, parent, and community trainings are also highly interactive. They strike a perfect balance of being easy to understand while also being sophisticated and backed by research. Program staff are clearly experts at their craft and highly intentional about what they do. I look forward to seeing Tandem grow and thrive in supporting families throughout the Bay Area.

Volunteering at this incredible organization is always a joy ! The staff is so dedicated and enthusiastic about their mission and they carry out their objectives with deep convictions and never waining hard work. To work with this team inspires additional commitment to help in other areas of early childhood literacy. Tandem is a highly valued contributing member of the community and their good work has a ripple effect toward giving children a love of books and a head start into early literacy.

I'm so happy to support such a fantastic organization, who work so hard to give books and the love of learning to families!

I enjoyed reading to kids and seeing their eyes light up with the stories!

I attended a Tandem workshop and saw firsthand how Tandem partners with educators to enhance their skills so kids understand, retain, participate, and have more fun when reading. I had some great take-aways, not intuitive by the way, that changed the way I read to my 2-year old. I feel they are an invaluable community resource we should all be thankful for.

Tandem is filling a need in the Bay Area and closing the opportunity gap that so many children face as they enter kindergarten. This organization is creative and thoughtful in their approach to their work, and creating impactful change. The staff are extremely talented and dedicated, not to mention strongly committed to the Tandem mission.

Working with Tandem is a joy. It's clear that Tandem staff members truly love the work they do, and truly care about the communities and the families they serve. When they host free workshops in the community, it's clear to see they bring a level of expertise, excitement, and fun to the experience.

Tandem is a non-profit the so at operates with complete integrity and works hard serve families and communities where it's needed most. When they see a need, they go work to serve it. I have never known another organization to be so honest in their representation about the work that they do.

I work for Martinez Early Childhood Center, a non-profit, state-funded school that serves families in the community so that they can work and/or attend school while their child is cared for in a safe environment. Tandem has been a gift to our families for the last two years. Families receive developmentally-appropriate children's books each week that they can take home and share with their children. Every week, the children proudly take home their book bags excited to see what new stories are waiting for them. I love Tandem's StoryCycles program. Children's books can be expensive and not every family has the luxury of time to go to the library. Tandem provides the convenience of a school-to-home borrowing system which in turn supports literacy development in our young children. We know how important it is for young children to be read to and have meaningful connections with their caregivers- StoryCycles is like a tool families can use to provide this for their children. The Tandem organization also hires the most amazing people! I think you have to have special DNA to work for them because everyone involved with Tandem is fabulously talented and has a huge heart. Our children love when out literacy specialist, Laura comes to read to the children and our families love the information she shares with them about brain and literacy development. Tandem adds something magical to our school that cannot be matched. Thank you Tandem, Partners in Early Learning!!

My school loves partnering with Tandem! Our families love the StoryCycles program which has really enriched our school. Tandem offers wonderful family and teacher workshops as well. Thank you, Tandem for all that you do!

This is a well run charity with highly professional and dedicated staff. They find solutions to the problem and are well respected by their partners and customers of other nonprofits, teachers, and parents.

Tandem is a wonderful organization that is committed to supporting families and caregivers to take on the very important role of being their children’s first teachers. They offer high quality training and other supportive services that benefit the entire community, including school-to-home book-sharing opportunities, workshops for families and educators on early learning, and leadership development training for parent leaders interested in promoting early literacy in their neighborhoods. Tandem’s staff members are experts in their fields of early language and literacy development, and they have a large group of school and community-based partners that rely on and respect the support they receive from Tandem. I am honored to work with and support Tandem!

I reached out for support promoting early literacy at my current job. Thankfully, Tandem immediately responded and exceeded my expectation. With great enthusiasm they are helping me train our staff and clients, as well as coming to our activities to promote the great benefits of early literacy.

I'm a preschool teacher in a Dual Language Program in the San Francisco Unified School District and we have received brand new books and bags from Tandem to start our classroom rotating library. The books are beautiful, colorful, culturally relevant and come in three languages: Spanish, Chinese and English! There are also word-less books that are great to encourage young children to use their imagination and emergent communication skills in their home language and /or English. We are very pleased with the support we have received from this wonderful organization -TANDEM, working so tirelessly on behalf of children, educators and families. On behalf of our school community at Las Americas Early Education School, THANK YOU!

Tandem, Partners in Early Learning is a great organization to partner with and
I've had a great experience working with their staff. We work together to promote early literacy in the Mission District of San Francisco and we rely on their expertise for building the capacity of families and educators throughout our community.

I work as a Program Director for a small, nonprofit Child Development Center on Treasure Island and can easily tell you that Tandem is one of our favorite partners. We serve low income children who do not have access to books often or trips into the city to attend the library due to working parents. Tandem has partnered us with a wonderful rep named Kelsey, who visits often doing read-alouds in all the classrooms. The children love her visits and storytelling, but most especially are excited about the book bags filled with new titles weekly that they take home and share with their families. Parents love these also, and even share favorite book titles with teachers. Teachers learn new ways to engage children in stories and books as well. We all love when Kelsey visits! This is an invaluable service for children and the people who work at Tandem are the ones who make it fantastic!

Tandem is an incredible organization. They are always asking how they can do more to help more children and families. At the same time they are careful to always grow in a sustainable and smart way, without compromising quality. Their staff is dedicated and vibrant, and they are truly leaders in the field of Early Literacy and Family Engagement.

With their deep expertise and skillful collaboration, Tandem made our parent engagement around early literacy highly effective. I'm so grateful that the Bay Area has a partner in them.

I am honored and privileged to be a member of the Board of Tandem, Partners in Early Learning, a leader in early childhood literacy. Tandem's dedicated and enthusiastic staff and volunteers work tirelessly to spark the joy and close the opportunity gap through Tandem's book sharing program, parent and educator workshops, and community literacy events. Tandem is known for its innovative and collaborative approaches to improving childhood literacy and works closely with parents and educators to empower them to spark the joy of reading and learning in young children.

Early childhood literacy is the highest impact investment we can make in children's futures. However, to be truly transformative, book-sharing/reading programs must be coupled with literacy development. Tandem is leading the way by providing a suite of wraparound services to support parents and educators in developing early literacy, which is the number 1 predictor of future success in school and in life. The tandem team is tireless and deliberate in adapting to the needs of its communities and families and is a pioneer in the future of early childhood development.

As a pediatrician, parent, and grandparent I am thrilled to endorse TANDEM Partners in Early Learning as an outstanding organization that does what it says it will do to close the achievement gap. The creativity and flexibility of programming and staff to bring age and culturally appropriate books to young children and their families are outstanding. But it is not only the books TANDEM brings to the communities it serves. It partners in tandem with the families, care givers, teachers, and the community of the child to teach the science and art of each child attaining its full potential.

I am proud and honored to be a board member of Tandem, with its noble mission of improving literacy among young children. The staff, volunteers, and community do an amazing job of sparking excitement in reading, so that it is not a chore, but a joy! Kudos to them all. Thousands upon thousands of children and their families have benefited as a result of their work.

Tandem focuses on building literacy skills in underserved areas in the Bay Area. Growing up in a low income area in the East Bay, reading was a differentiator for my own academic success. Reading books and experiencing places and ideas that were foreign to my own existence was an inspiration for me to excel in school. Tandem provides the first experience with book sharing in these families and helps build a foundation for success in school. Both Travis and I serve on the Board of Directors for Tandem and we are excited by the work and results they achieve in underserved areas of the Bay Area.

Tandem does a great job serving over 14,000 underprivileged kids in the SF Bay Area! Excited for what's in store for them now as an independent non-profit organization!

They put in many hours to make sure that their goals are met. They truly believe in their mission and purpose. Their vision inspired me to volunteer for them. They set up an "internship" for me so I can learn more about non-profits' operations while I volunteer for them. They are one of the best organizations in San Francisco

I am exceptionally proud to be serving on the board of directors at Raising a Reader. Molly and her staff are doing a tremendous job at their stated goal of building early literacy through family engagement. I am always impressed at the passion and enthusiasm of the staff and other board members, which coupled with rigorous annual/quarterly planning and relentless execution continues to deliver and expand the program well beyond objectives.

Raising A Reader San Francisco and Alameda Counties is an inspiring organization. I am really happy to be a part of it as a board member and have been incredibly impressed with the professionalism of the staff and by the impact they are having in the community. I grew up in a bilingual household where building a comfort with reading was more difficult. Seeing how RAR is going into homes and engaging the whole family and creating a mindset of learning would have made a huge difference in my home and is why I am inspired by their work.

Raising a Reader is doing cutting edge work in the Bay by taking a more holistic approach to literacy. As someone who works with many educators, I really appreciate the idea of family engagement as a tool for early childhood literacy. RAR does great work in supporting families in the community to develop skills in helping their children succeed from a very early age and working towards narrowing the "30 million word gap" particularly in low-income communities that have less access to resources. RAR staff are passionate about the advancement of our next generation and about changing the world to be more equitable for all children to have a chance at success. Kudos to the great work of building brilliant minds in our children and stronger communities (families and educators) to support them!

Raising a reader is a wonderful way for our us to share a variety of stories with our child! It is very convenient since the teachers hand them out to us every week! IWhat a wonderful progrma!

Raising A Reader Bay Area goes WAY beyond sharing wonderful children's books with 0-6 year olds from under resourced areas. And the book sharing in and of itself is huge, given that parents and caregivers who are piecing together multiple minimum wage jobs and relying on the (unreliable and slow public bus system) are not going to have money to buy books OR the time to get to a public library (especially given how limited library hours are these days due to municipal budget cuts). But RAR is such a thoughtful and responsive nonprofit -- plus fierce like a roaring/RARing tiger! -- that its smart and dedicated staff also provide support to teachers and parents and other caregivers to their target kids. RAR supports adults in reading MORE and in reading BETTER. They model interactive reading (SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH!) and make it easy for parents to make reading time a time for bonding as well and emphasize the building blocks of reading/literacy and even address how reading can be fun and useful even for caregivers who have limited literacy themselves.

P.S. RAR staff are FUN! Trust me, that is actually quite rare in nonprofits -- especially those addressing inequities AND that are effective.

An organization that is passionate about creating change in this world for the little minds in the world. Amazingly thoughtful about their engagement with the families, educators and communities. They rock!

Amazing program for little brains - we loved having the bags arrive and opening them - like a present every time. Made reading fun and created such a nice time with my kids. And all delivered to our school! Amazing.

Raising a Reader is a wonderful organization! Not only do they provide us with the physical tools(books and book bags) to share great books with the children at our center, they provide the teachers with the tools to foster the love of books in children. They will do workshops for teachers as well as come and do events in the classroom with the children and families. The children at our center look forward to the "red book bags" each week. It is such a great feeling when you see a child "read" a book to themselves, just by memorization because it has been read to them so many times out of love.