Grant Request Read to Grow, Inc.
Hermanowski Family Foundation Initial Request Form
Organization Name: Read to Grow, Inc.
Legal Name (if Different):
Also Known As:
Mailing Address: 53 School Ground Road, #3
City: Branford
State: CT
Postal Code: 06405
Main Phone: 203.488.6800
Main Fax: 203.488.7735
Organization Website: www.readtogrow.org
Employer ID Number: 06-1572185
Organization Tax Status: 501 (c) 3
Proposal Information
Today’s Date: 3/14/18
Requested Amount: 5,000
Project Title: Books for Babies: Sharing Books Beginning at Birth
Project Description:
Too many children enter kindergarten without the basic language and pre-literacy skills they need for normal progression through and success in school. Only 34.6% of Connecticut children entering kindergarten demonstrate level 3 literacy skills and require little or no intervention. (CT Department of Education, 2016-17).
Kindergarten children who do not have level 3 literacy skills are already behind.
Read to Grow provides literacy information and free children’s books to Connecticut families. We are requesting support for the Books for Babies (BFB) program.
The BFB program provides new board books to over 60% of all newborns in the state and early literacy guides to their parents through 14 hospital partners. Volunteers, trained by Read to Grow, visit families on the maternity unit to explain the ways parents can encourage literacy and language development by regularly reading aloud, talking, and singing to their babies.
• BFB Sibling Books provides books for siblings of babies born in our partner hospitals.
• BFB Follow-up mails new developmentally appropriate books and literacy brochures to families that register, when their babies are 3 months old and 12 months old.
We encourage parents to start the healthy habit of sharing books, talking and singing to their babies daily, beginning at birth.
“Studies have shown that the children who come to kindergarten best equipped to learn to read have been read to — on average — nearly 1700 hours between birth and kindergarten,” (Halvorson, 2013).
Last year (period ending 6/30/17), 20,900 families of newborns received literacy packets, 5,138 siblings received books and 4,134 families registered for Follow-up. Nearly 1,100 families who registered for Follow-up responded to surveys which revealed: 95% read the new baby board books in the literacy packets to their babies, 84% talk to their babies often and 66% read to their babies at least once a day.
Total Project Budget: $383,423
Other Funding
Sources For The Project (Committed & Potential): Funded $85,000 Seedlings Foundation $ 4,000 Community Foundation for Greater New Haven Pending $ 2,500 Saint Francis Foundation $40,000 Hospital Funding $35,000 Hospital Auxiliaries
Project Duration: Ongoing
Geographical Area Served: Connecticut
Age Group To Be Served: babies and their parents
Contact Information
Contact Prefix (Mr,Mrs etc.): Ms.
Contact First Name: Paula
Contact Last Name: Grimm
Contact Title: Development Associate
Contact Phone: 203.488.6800
Contact Email: pgrimm@readtogrow.org