By SALINA POST
A children's literacy program promoted by the Salina Area United Way is the recipient of a national award.
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is one of three winners of the 2021 Literacy Awards, the Library of Congress announced this morning.
“Literacy develops the mind and the heart, engages the intellect and imagination, and builds wide-ranging knowledge of the world,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “Through the generosity of David M. Rubenstein, the Library of Congress is proud to honor and celebrate the achievements of these extraordinary organizations in their efforts to advance literacy and enable people to survive and thrive in the world.”
Following is information about the three award recipients as provided by the Library of Congress.
2021 David M. Rubenstein Prize ($150,000): Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
The Imagination Library, also known as Dolly’s Library, is an initiative of the Dollywood Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by Dolly Parton in 1988. Dedicated to improving the lives of children by inspiring a love of reading, the Imagination Library provides books free of charge to families through local community partnerships. It first launched in 1995, with 1,760 children enrolled from birth to age 5 in one community; each child in that community received one free book mailed to their home monthly for 60 months. As of March 2021, 1,828,800 books are now mailed every month to children in the U.K., Australia, U.S., Canada, Republic of Ireland, and dozens of indigenous communities, in multiple countries and territories.
Since 2014 when the Imagination Library received “best practice” recognition from the Library of Congress Literacy Awards, the Dollywood Foundation has strategically positioned the Imagination Library for aggressive growth. In 2018, it achieved a staggering milestone of 100 million books mailed to children, and two years later, at the end of 2020, it surpassed 150 million books. Although mailing the books to each child’s home is only one aspect of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, it is a remarkable feat that helps improve literacy on an international scale and creates special moments for children and families.
American Prize ($50,000): The Parents as Teachers National Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Parents as Teachers builds strong communities, thriving families, and children who are healthy, safe and ready to learn by matching parents and caregivers with trained professionals who make regular personal home visits during a child’s earliest years in life, from prenatal through kindergarten. Parents as Teachers (PAT) began in the 1980s and is now the most replicated home visiting model in the United States. The center has trained thousands of early childhood family support professionals through its curricula and programs, which prepare home visitors and supervisors to implement effective parent education in literacy, health and human services. Other groups, such as Head Start, school districts and hospitals, incorporate the PAT curricula into their work. Parents as Teachers boasts almost 1,000 affiliates in the U.S. and six other countries, all comprised of people trained to coach, guide and reinforce parents as early teachers.
International Prize ($50,000): The Luminos Fund, Boston, Massachusetts
The Luminos Fund provides transformative education programs to thousands of out-of-school children, helping them to catch up to grade level, reintegrate into local schools and prepare for lifelong learning. It delivers a joyful-learning approach in classrooms in Ethiopia, Liberia and Lebanon to help children cover three school grades of learning in 10 months. Supported by a number of foundations, the Luminos Fund provides a toolkit for other governments and nongovernmental organizations to adopt its core program, Second Chance. Second Chance students increase their reading ability while gaining confidence and a positive view toward their future. To date, the Luminos Fund has reached more than 152,000 children across the globe.
Additional information on the awards and previous winners, as well as an interactive program map are available at read.gov/literacyawards.