Real Men Read
A Program with a Purpose:
- Positive Male Role Model: Nearly One-fourth (23.7%) of America’s children live in mother-only families.1 Real Men Read volunteers provide a positive male role model to 2nd and 3rd grade students by making 5 visits to the classroom throughout the school year to read a book and engage the students’ interest in reading.
- Books for Children: Two-thirds of America’s children living in poverty have no books at home.2 Each child in the Real Men Read program receives their own books to keep.
- Since the program began in 2009, over 160,000 books have been given to children in Allen County (as of 2017).
- The presence of books in the home has a greater influence on a child’s level of education than does the parent’s income, nationality, or level of education.3
- Through the 3rd grade, students are learning to read; after 3rd grade they are reading to learn; it is important to engage these students and enforce with them the importance of reading.
- In 2013 22.1% of 3rd grade students in FWCS and EACS did not pass the English/Language Arts portion of the ISTEP and 14.1% did not pass the IREAD exam.
- 79% of teachers agree that the RMR program is helping students achieve a higher literacy performance.
Real Men Read serves all of Fort Wayne Community Schools & East Allen Co Schools: Cedarville, Heritage, New Haven Primary, New Haven Intermediate, Prince Chapman, Southwick and Woodlan Primary.
To find out more about Real Men Read - please call our office at 260-456-1600 and ask for Erika.


1. US Census Bureau 2013 2. http://www.rif.org/us/about/literacy-issues.htm 3. Evans,M.D.R.,etal. Family scholarly culture and educational success: Books and schooling in 27 nations. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility (2010), doi:10.1016/j.rssm.2010.01.002 4. http://www.rif.org/us/about/literacy-issues.htm