Bitty & Beau’s Coffee; John’s Crazy Socks; Café Joyeux; Happy Flour Bakery; and Greater Tater. These are just a handful of small businesses developed specifically to help adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities gain meaningful employment.
Recently, a nonprofit in Cheshire, Connecticut, joined their ranks.
ReRead Books & More, a used bookstore, was founded by Hope Reinhard in 2020. As she told Tracey O’Shaughnessy, of the Journal Inquirer/TNS, in an article re-printed in Disability Scoop, the shop is “a training ground for young people with disabilities, including those with intellectual disability or who are neurodivergent, who need a little more instruction than an employee manual and video can provide.”
Reinhard, an avid reader who loves young people, knew that the store’s mission was critical. Prior to starting the shop, she worked as a transition coordinator at the local high school. Her job was to help students with disabilities find employment that matched their interests and talents. It wasn’t easy.
“Once students turn 22 and they no longer receive transition services, it can be like falling off a cliff,” she told O’Shaughnessy. “You’re cut off from everything at that point,” says Reinhard. “You can’t play on the Cheshire Challengers [a baseball program for kids with disabilities], you can’t do adaptive sports. It’s a very difficult transition to make. You go from having all these supportive services to where it’s ripped out from under you.”
After Reinhard came up with the idea for a bookstore, she formed a nonprofit, created a board of directors and began soliciting book donations via social media. Thousands of books were donated and initially, they were stored in her garage. But before long, the garage was full and Reinhard needed to rent a storefront. She found one on the bottom floor of Cheshire’s historic Watch Factory Shoppes.
Nowadays, ReRead Books & More is bustling with business. Every Sunday and Monday, the store accepts donated books and knick-knacks, while employees take inventory, sort books into subject categories and put them on store shelves. In addition to sales, the store —which has a cozy, vibe that makes one want to curl up with a good book — holds various literary events such as author talks, book launches and kids’ character breakfasts. A local coffee vendor that subcontracts with the store sells beverages and snacks.
ReRead employees all work part-time and are paid minimum wage. The store is funded through public and private grants and Reinhard says it “breaks even.” To raise additional money, she rents out an upstairs space for parties and special events.
One reason for the organization’s success? “People don’t like to throw away books,” Reinhard told O’Shaughnessy. Another? “People liked the mission. It was helping other people and that (special needs) population.”
