The Dolly Parton Imagination Library provides children with a new book every month

Through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, Success By 6 provides children with a free new book every month through their fifth birthday.

Research shows that disadvantaged children come to school years behind their peers in pre-reading skills, and rarely catch up, and that the children still struggling to read in 3rd grade are the ones who eventually drop out.

Evaluations indicate that Imagination Library is getting parents more comfortable reading to their children and kids more interested in reading. Age-appropriate books are mailed straight to the homes of children to build their very own library.

Low-income children are targeted for enrollment because while 8 out of 10 middle-income children enter Kindergarten ready to read, only 2 out of 10 low-income children are ready.

Major sponsors for the Imagination Library are Publix Super Markets Charities, Friends of the Bartow Library, Bartow Rotary, Junior League of Greater Lakeland and Florida’s Natural Growers Foundation.

Designated areas are Hardee and Highlands counties, Bartow, Fort Meade, Lake Wales, Winter Haven and Lakeland. In fiscal year 2019/2020, 15,202 books were mailed to 1,795 children!

United Way of Central Florida Success By 6 is dedicated to creating a community where all children, by the age of 6, have the mental, physical, social and emotional foundation needed to grow into healthy, productive members of the community. Success By 6 is a community-wide children’s initiative, founded in 1995 by Carol Jenkins Barnett of Publix Super Markets Charities and spearheaded by United Way of Central Florida. Publix Super Markets Charities continues to provide major support for all the Success By 6 initiatives.

For more information about our Dolly Parton Imagination Library, sign up or give a donation to this program, visit https://uwcf.org/dolly-partons-imagination-library/