Reading With Rover Competitors

Our Mission: Pet Partners' mission is to improve human health and well-being through the human-animal bond. About us: Pet Partners is the national leader in demonstrating and promoting the health and wellness benefits of animal-assisted therapy, activities, and education. Since the organization’s inception in 1977, the science proving these benefits has become indisputable. With more than 10,000 registered teams making more than 3 million visits annually, Pet Partners serves as the nation’s most diverse and respected nonprofit registering handlers of multiple species as volunteer teams. Pet Partners teams visit with patients in recovery, people with intellectual disabilities, seniors living with Alzheimer’s, students, veterans with PTSD, people who have experienced crisis events, and those approaching end of life, with the goal of improving human health and well-being through the human-animal bond. With the release of its Standards of Practice for Animal-Assisted Interventions and international expansion, Pet Partners is globally recognized as the industry gold standard. For more information on Pet Partners, visit www.petpartners.org.

Therapy Dogs International (TDI®) is a volunteer organization dedicated to regulating, testing and registration of therapy dogs and their handlers for the purpose of visiting nursing homes, hospitals, schools, care facilities and wherever else therapy dogs are needed! We have volunteer dogs and their handlers in all 50 States as well as Canada. Whether they’re working with a child who is learning to read, visiting a patient in a hospital or a senior in assisted living, therapy dogs and their owners work together as a team to improve the lives of other people. A dog can provide a valuable sense of reassurance, joy, and calmness to people experiencing stressful, lonely or depressing situations in their life.

Our mission is to improve literacy skills using an engaging curriculum, dedicated volunteers, and certified dogs. Yes, dogs! A growing body of research affirms what we see (and if you have ever had a dog you know), that dogs days at school encourage kids to show up. Calm dogs help everybody in the room slow down, tune in, relax, and feel seen and heard. Dogs' nonjudgemental listening skills, soft, warm bodies, and giant eyes signal attention and companionship. Less stressed kids are in a better state to learn and practice reading out loud, writing, and having intentional conversations with adults and peers in their first or a new language. Since 2003, SitStayRead has been working to increase reading fluency, build comprehension and decoding skills, foster clear written expression, establish positive attitudes towards reading and writing, and develop an understanding of and connection with animals. We serve Kindergarten, first, and second grade classrooms in schools who report 90% or higher low income households, and 40% or lower third graders reading at proficient levels. We are currently focused on Auburn Gresham, Austin, Humboldt Park, Little Village, and Pilsen. Curricula have been created in partnership with a Program Advisory Committee, which includes SitStayRead staff, volunteers, teachers, and faculty from the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Literacy, University of Chicago, DePaul University, and Northeastern Illinois University, and is built using Common Core standards. The Department of School Psychology at Loyola University Chicago has also provided assessments of the social emotional impact of our programs. Between 2022-2024 all curricula was revised and bilingual iterations developed. In 2024-25, additional components of Science of Reading were incorporated as we reentered CPS for the first time since COVID lockdowns, and launched a new partnership with the Chicago Public Library as part of their Jump Into Reading initiative.