Goal: A Book For Every Newborn

Sixteen years ago, ​“a scrappy group of people” thought of donating books to parents of newborns, and made their first move at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

On Thursday they returned to where they started to launch a social media campaign for literacy for every baby.

The campaign is called Read to Grow. In the colorful Kohl’s playroom at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital, Read to Grow chair Roxanne J. Coady announced the not-for-profit’s partnership with the hospital in launching ​“Books For Every Baby.”

Read to Grow currently provides 58 percent of all newborns in Connecticut with baby books and literacy guides.The campaign aims at raising awareness of the group’s work and boosting the rate to 100 percent.

At the press conference on Thursday, every speaker from Mayor Toni Harp to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro emphasized the power of reading to babies.

“The achievement gap starts at birth,” Coady said at the launching event. By age 3, a child’s brain grows to about 80 percent of its adult size. So reading at an early stage is vital for later performance in life.

Only 72 percent of children in Connecticut graduate from high school. Coady said that starting with a book is a small but important step to address that problem. Low-income families often lack age-appropriate books for their children.

That’s where Read to Grow comes in. When new parents check in at a hospital, they will receive a packet of books, as well as the First Guide to Parents of Newborns. Volunteers will drop by and explain to parents how to use the guide.

“We live in New Haven, which is one of the poor cities in the U.S., where families and children are challenged,” Yale-New Haven Hospital CEO Marna Borgstrom said. Social determinants such as poverty and education level have strong impacts on health, and that’s why the hospital is collaborating with Read to Grow to boost literacy, Borgstrom explained.

Harp remembered the most important lesson she learned from her parents was to have books around kids. Her administration has promoted a campaign of its own to is determined to make New Haven the ​“city that reads,” targeting the young.

DeLauro recalled how she was young, her parents used to read to her every night.

“When kids get sophisticated, they know when you skip a word,” DeLauro joked. She ended her speech with a quote from Yale child-development pioneer Edward Zig­ler: ​“If every child is a national treasure, then every child’s welfare is a national responsibility.”

Jaspreet Loyal, medical director of the hospital’s Newborn Nursery, said she has watched Read to Grow’s volunteers at work, and praised their efforts in explaining to parents the problem of too much screen time.

Participants also heard from Adry Sotolongo, a mother of a 5‑month-old baby and a beneficiary of Read to Grow. She moved to the city from Puerto Rico one year ago. Sotolongo commended the project for benefiting new settlers in the city.

“I was very lucky. My family sort of did this fly-in, fly-out sort of situation. We had a support system during those critical times. But a lot of families here don’t have that luxury,” Sotolongo said, ​“Connecticut, from what I’ve seen, has a huge population of immigrants, particularly from Latin America. They can’t afford to just pick up a phone and tell mom and dad ​‘I’m having a kid. Jump Over.’”