CLOSING GAPS AND CREATING OPPORTUNITIES. DOLLY PARTON’S IMAGINATION LIBRARY.

The challenge: Children are not achieving developmental or academic milestones and struggle with their literacy skills.

The solution: Build home libraries by making Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library available for local families.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a no-cost subscription program that provides one book per month to local children from birth to age five. Jennifer Hernández registered her two sons, Gabriel (2) and Michael (4) for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in early 2022. Six months after enrolling, Hernández met up with United Way and was eager to show off two brightly-colored books that had just arrived in the mail. Hernández handed them to her sons, who brimmed with excitement at seeing their names on the mailing labels and were enthusiastic to point out their favorite parts of the stories.

“I carry Imagination Library books with me … since they are guaranteed to hold [Gabriel and Michael’s] attention. I have noticed their interest in books increase since they began receiving books from the Imagination Library program,” Hernández said

A $40 donation provides an Imaginational Library book subscription for one year to a local child.

“You can never get enough books into the hands of enough children.”
– Dolly Parton