Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, the free-book program she founded in 1995, is expanding in London nearly a month after the country icon's death. The expansion will double the program's footprint in the British capital, increasing the number of served boroughs from five to 10 and making an additional 157,000 children eligible to receive a free book every month until age 5.
The program, run by Parton's pro-education nonprofit the Dollywood Foundation, has delivered more than 330 million books to upwards of 3 million children internationally over the past 31 years. What began as an effort to provide books to children in Parton's childhood community of Sevier County, Tennessee, now serves all 50 U.S. states and countries including Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
Jeff Conyers, president of the Dollywood Foundation, told the BBC that Parton would have been «incredibly proud» to see the program grow after her death. «Dolly always wanted the Imagination Library to be something that lived on for generations into the future,» Conyers said. «She was constantly pushing us about how we get the Imagination Library to more and more children and more and more families.»
The London expansion is sponsored by the Postcode Lottery, a charity lottery operating throughout the U.K. Clara Govier, the lottery's managing director, said Parton «understood the extraordinary power of something very simple: a child, a grown-up and a book.»
The expansion comes as children's literacy rates in the United States reach new lows. The latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress show that 33% of eighth-graders have «below basic» reading skills, the largest proportion in the test's three decades of being administered. The NAEP also found that 40% of fourth-graders had «below basic» reading skills, the greatest amount in the past 20 years.
In the U.K., organizers of the London expansion cited concerning statistics around childhood literacy, including a survey of 1,000 teachers who reported that nearly a third of pre-school-age students are unable to properly use books, instead tapping or swiping on the pages as though they were touchscreens.
The Imagination Library works by partnering with local organizations to deliver age-appropriate books directly to children's homes. According to the program's own research, parents reported that their children became more interested in reading due to receiving books every month, while some studies showed that participating children had more advanced literary skills than their classmates who did not enroll.
Parton founded the Dollywood Foundation in 1988 and launched the Imagination Library seven years later. The program's growth after her passing reflects her long-standing commitment to education and her belief in the power of books to change children's lives.