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 is it going?
The program is progressing well, with steady weekly applications and strong participation from families with younger children, allowing them to benefit over a longer period of time. Early registration at the hospital has been especially effective, enabling children to begin receiving books as soon as possible while streamlining the enrollment process for families and reducing paperwork barriers. While managing participant transfers and ensuring all eligible children are served has been more complex than expected, careful coordination at the partnership level has helped maximize funding and extend the program’s reach. Overall, the program remains strong, well-managed, and impactful for local families.
Successes
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.
We have served 1,968 Chatham County children with books this year!
Total Children Served: 1968










