A pair of new programs launched in 2014 by Branford-based Read to Grow (RTG) have proven so successful, demand for program books is outpacing inventory—and that has Kyn Tolson putting out a plea for help.

“We desperately need more books,” says Kyn, executive director of non-profit RTG.

Specifically, RTG needs more books to support the families clamoring for books through its Book Places and Partnerships programs.

“We created Book Places and Partnerships two years ago, in the summer of 2014,” says Kyn. “From that time to this past summer, we went from a total annual distribution for both programs of 125,000 books to over 190,000—and if we were meeting the demand for bilingual books, we would easily be over 200,000. What that’s done is put a real strain on our whole inventory.”

Right now, RTG needs donations of gently used English language children’s books and, even better, bilingual text (English/Spanish). RTG will also gratefully accept monetary donations at its website www.readtogrow.org to help purchase needed books.

“About half the books that we give out in a year are gently used, and half are purchased,” says Kyn.

With a core group of 35 “steadfast and loyal” volunteers ready to categorize, clean, label, and send out donated books for delivery to sites across the state, Kyn says the RTG headquarters at 53 School Ground Road can handle many contributions, from a few books donated by individuals to boxes of inventory gathered through book drives.

“People can give us gently used children’s books they have in their homes, and we welcome anyone who may want to organize little book drives in their neighborhoods or work places,” says Kyn, adding, “Book drives are critical to our existence. For people who work in a big institution, like a bank, they may be able to stimulate interest in a book drive that’s not just at their location, but at others belonging to their [company].”

A book drive organization tool kit can be downloaded from the RTG website, www.readtogrow.org

RTG’s Book Places and Partnership programs grew out of RTG’s statewide Books for Kids outreach efforts.

“We get out about 175,000 books a year just for Books for Kids,” says Kyn. “And within the Books for Kids program, we started the two new initiatives, which have really spiked the demand for our books. They were both specifically started and created by us to target our services and our books to low-income and at-risk families.”

RTG now has 30 Book Places around the state as well as 13 Partnership programs.

For each Book Place, “we partner with existing non-profits to set up book shelves that we provide, and fill them regularly with children’s books. The host non-profits agree to open their doors not only to their clients to select books and take them home to keep, but also to [area] families who might not otherwise use their services,” says Kyn. “We replace the books every six weeks to two months. It’s kind of a cookie-cutter formula that has worked very well.”

RTG Partnerships are also available around the state.

“For Partnerships, we tailor to what the existing non-profits are doing for at-risk and low-income families. We add or enhance a childhood literacy component to what they’re already doing,” says Kyn. “We’re creating specialty collaborative partnerships.”

RTG also distributes books to other literacy effort actions such as New Haven Reads as well as supplying books for health care clinics, pediatrician’s offices, and OB GYN offices.

Since RTG was established in 2000, the Branford non-profit has given away more than 1.49 million books to more than 900,000 Connecticut children. RTG was built on its flagship program, Books for Babies. The effort, supported by RTG volunteer participants, delivers “literacy packets” to hospitals to give to families of newborns. Today, the packets include English and bilingual (Spanish-English) versions of a baby board book, a guide for parents of newborns, a card for follow-up to receive more free books, and CT CHET Baby Scholars information and reply card. Of those families assisted through RTG programs, 85 percent are monolingual Spanish or bilingual Spanish.

Books for Babies began at area hospitals including Yale New Haven Hospital. In nearly 17 years, that program has grown include partnerships with 12 hospitals statewide. Currently, more than 22,200 Books for Babies literacy packets are distributed to mothers and their newborns annually by RTG.

“But there are about twice as many hospitals in the state where babies are born,” Kyn points out. “We’re in Yale New Haven, which is by far the largest; we’re in Hartford and Bridgeport; but we’re not in every hospital—we’re not in Waterbury or Stamford or Norwalk. We would very much love to be in every place. Right now, we reach 58 percent of all the babies in the state. We would like to reach 100 percent.”

Kyn says more funding is needed to grow hospital partnerships with RTG.

“We really have to find funding for the program, because, with a few exceptions [of which Yale New Haven is one], we don’t get funding directly from the hospital. That’s the reason why we aren’t able to pursue more hospital partnerships.”

In the meantime, RTG is working on another way to spread the word about the importance of reading to newborns and babies, with a brand-new social media campaign launched this summer, #BooksforEveryBaby.

“We launched our social media campaign the last day in June, and the idea really is to spread awareness of the need for early childhood literacy,” says Kyn. “And when we’re talking about that term, we’re talking about families and childcare providers who spend a lot of time around children of all ages. Reading together is a fun and very simple and practical way of building language skills of children. It really is a pre-literacy step.”

Kyn says the importance of family members reading to newborns and little ones can’t be over-emphasized. As RTG states on its website, babies begin learning the moment they’re born. By age 3, a child’s brain has grown to about 80 percent of its adult size.

“Our mission statement focuses on promoting language skills and literacy beginning at birth, and supporting parents as their baby’s first teacher,” says Kyn. “It is, in so many ways, such a simple, wonderful thing that can reap a lot of major benefits.”

She adds that printed books are alive and well and of great use to the programs of RTG.

“A book is a way to connect with your child, your baby, your eight-year old, or your 12 year-old, or for an older child to read to a younger child or younger sibling,” says Kyn. “It’s a way to create a habit of communication, of person-to-person engagement. It sounds so basic, but that’s kind of the miracle of it. You can create a habit, even if you’re working 12 hours a day, of sharing books for 10, 15, or 20 minutes with a child at the beginning or end of the day. You won’t believe the things that will grow from that, and the connections that will develop.”

For more information on Read to Grow, visit www.readtogrow.org, find ReadtoGrowCT on Facebook, follow@ReadtoGrowCT on Twitter, email readtogrow@readtogrow.org, or call 203-488-6800. Read to Grow accepts gently used books for newborns to high-school age.