Chatham County Partnership for Children
Jennifer Wood and Cyntia Gutierrez
Family Support
Empowering young minds from the very start!
Sending a free book in the mail to young children each month until their fifth birthday!
How did it go?
During this program year, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library successfully provided Chatham children from birth to age five with a free, age-appropriate book each month. A major success was increasing enrollment by promoting the program at playgroups and community events, which expanded awareness and connected more families to valuable early literacy resources. Toward the end of the year, limited funding required a temporary pause on new enrollments, although services continued for currently enrolled children. This challenge underscored the need for sustainable funding to ensure the program can continue growing and serving more eligible families in the future.
Successes
Books Build Bonds for Grandmother and Grandson
One of the participants in our playgroup was recently awarded custody of her two-year-old grandson unexpectedly. We introduced her to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and helped her enroll. While she is bilingual, her grandson speaks only Spanish, and she had mentioned struggling to find bilingual books. Since receiving the Imagination Library books, both she and her grandson have developed a love for reading, and their shared reading experiences have flourished.
When the Books Stopped Coming, One Phone Call Made All the Difference
Another family enrolled in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library moved and their books were returned due to an incorrect address, resulting in a delay in delivery. The child’s mother contacted us to ask whether it would be possible to receive the books her daughter had missed, sharing that her daughter loved getting books in the mail and was disappointed when they stopped arriving. We were able to provide the two missed books, and the family later shared that they became the child’s favorite books she had received through the program. This experience highlighted the importance of maintaining communication with families and ensuring children continue to experience the joy of receiving books each month.
We have served 2,162 Chatham County children with books this year!
