Interview with Emily Kirven, Executive Director of READ 718
By: Johanna Contreras
We interviewed Emily Kirven, Executive Director of READ 718, about the partnership between READ 718 and Brooklyn Book Bodega, and the power of building a community of volunteers.
Emily Kirven, Executive Director of READ 718
How did you connect with BBB?
I had established READ 718 in 2015. We’ve been around for a couple of years, but we’re also a new nonprofit organization. Rebecca and Seema reached out to me, and they said, “Can we come meet with you? We just have questions around starting a nonprofit.” They just wanted to chat because I was another literacy organization in the neighborhood. So I met them that way – they came in, and I talked about how I started READ 718, they asked questions, and we just had a nice meeting. Though the two organizations do very different things, they are both focused on literacy and education and children. So we’re very much aligned, and it makes sense that we would partner.
How have READ 718 and BBB partnered? Currently READ 718 both in Boerum Hill and Bed Stuy is a book drop site for Brooklyn Book Bodega. It’s great for a couple of reasons – Obviously, we want to help BBB out and get books in families’ and kids’ hands. We also have so many people coming to us wanting to donate books, which we love and appreciate but we just can’t take them all, we don’t have the space. So it made sense for us to partner with Brooklyn Book Bodega because we were already getting so many donations, or at least offers of donations, and we could give the books to them. I think it’s been about a year that we started officially partnering with them as drop-off sites.
Also in the past, READ 718 has had a table to give out information at some of the Brooklyn Book Bodega events. We’re actually going to be doing that again in a couple of weeks.
Why do you choose to partner with BBB - what do you think makes them special? Even though we’re both literacy organizations, we have very different missions. Their mission of getting books in households, and children having personal libraries, is huge and so important for those kids’ long-term literacy development and love of reading. This is really, really wonderful and something we don’t do. We’re all kind of approaching literacy within the communities that we serve from different angles, but then they all work together.
I also love that Brooklyn Book Bodega, like READ 718, relies heavily on volunteers within the community. We do that for a few reasons. Sure, one of them is because we can’t necessarily afford to pay for people to do all these things. But also, I really think there’s something special about having volunteers give back in meaningful ways to their communities. It connects people who may not otherwise be connected. It’s helpful, obviously, but it also gives people something positive to do, and people feel good about that. There’s something really wonderful about encouraging volunteers and creating a space for people not just to get the work done but also you’re creating a community.
Do you have any advice or words of wisdom for Rebecca and Seema as they continue to grow BBB? They’re doing a fantastic job! I don’t have any advice, but one thing I always try to remind myself of as I’m building something is that it’s one step at a time. I know that’s a little bit of a cliche, but it’s true, and it helps me if I start feeling like “Oh, we need to do this, and we need to do that, and we have to get bigger, and serve more kids, and…” That can feel really overwhelming sometimes. So for me, it’s always about breaking things down - what can we do now, and moving one step at a time, one foot after another, and then all of a sudden you’re like, “Oh, this past year, we served this many more kids, I can’t believe we actually did that.” It just sort of happens when you put your head down and keep doing the work. That’s not really advice, but it’s just something that comes to mind that I tell myself when I start to feel overwhelmed!