11 February, Melbourne: Today, US singer Dolly Parton is in Australia to announce the launch of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library - a charitable program that aims to improve the literacy of children across the country’s disadvantaged communities and give them a better chance at life. Dolly has chosen the debut of her Blue Smoke tour in Australia as the time to make this important announcement.
The Imagination Library will deliver one free, age appropriate book per month to children aged 0 - 5. Dolly is urging parents to read books to their children that inspire their dreams and hopes for life. Currently 735,000 children around the world receive a free, age appropriate book each month.
For the first time in Australia, Dolly will be sharing her personal story as a child growing up in a disadvantaged community that did not have access to educational opportunities. “If you can read, you can learn about anything,” says Dolly.
Through her charitable Dollywood Foundation, Dolly’s goal is to inspire a love of reading and learning among all children and to date, she and her local partners have gifted over 56,000,000 books to children in 4 countries.
In Australia, The Dolly Parton Imagination Library is run by United Way Australia, a charity organisation that is working closely with partners across the country, such as Rotary and Penguin Children’s Books, to deliver free books to as many children as possible.
“We are very excited to be launching Imagination Library in Australia and hope to help up to 40,000 families tackle the issue of early reading deficiencies,” said Doug Taylor, CEO of United Way Australia. “Already hundreds of children and parents have registered with the Imagination Library as part of our pilot program that will operate in six communities across the country.”
“We hope that with the support and commitment of communities, businesses and individuals, we will be able to extend this reading program to many more disadvantaged communities across Australia, ” he said.
Australian statistics reveal that up to one in five local school students are not ready to start school when enrolled. Whilst studies show that lower literacy and education levels can be a precursor to social issues such as unemployment and poverty - commonly leading to a cycle of disadvantage.
For more information visit:
www.unitedway.com.au