Broncos safety David Bruton Jr.'s passion for teaching has led to a new charitable foundation and program, he announced on Wednesday.

The former short-term substitute teacher established The David Bruton Foundation and a charitable program Bruton's Books. It focuses on schools across the Denver metro area in lower income communities to help improve proficiency in reading.

Bruton's Books will partner with the Colorado Reading Corps and School Partners, programs of Mile High United Way's School Readiness Initiative, the press release says. The goal of that program is to "increase the human capacity of elementary schools by integrating diverse, smart, passionate and trained AmeriCorps tutors into the classroom." From kindergarten to third grade, children are helped to become stronger readers and to receive access to support in one-on-one tutoring based in research on finding the best practices.

Bruton's Books will also grant funds and organize book donations to designated grades, students and classrooms. The initial program will be to allocate funds to those selected schools for students to pick out books to take home with them over the summer to avoid the 'brain drain' when school is out.

"My background in substitute teaching gave me a better awareness of the need for better reading skills support in our schools. We need to take this seriously and ensure that our children are able to read at grade level," Bruton said. "I am happy to continue my work with Mile High United Way and partner Bruton's Books with their School Readiness Initiative."

For more information, you can visit BrutonsBooks.org or follow @BrutonsBooks on Twitter and like Bruton's Books on Facebook.