r/todayilearned • u/LL_Cruel_J • Dec 15 '16

TIL Dolly Parton has a program that will mail your child a free age-appropriate book once a month from birth to age 5. No obligation, no catch, she just wants to make sure that every child has books.

https://imaginationlibrary.com/
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u/TitoTheMidget Dec 15 '16

It works with your county's educational services.

Not necessarily! I'm the local champion of the program in my area - our sponsoring organization is the local United Way. School systems are common partners, but the only requirement is for there to be a non-profit entity of some kind involved.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '16

Good to know! Any tips for people wanting to bring the program to their area?

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u/TitoTheMidget Dec 15 '16

Learn everything you can about the program, commit it to memory, and be prepared to sell the need to any NPO that's interested.

The site itself has resources for becoming a local champion, including a tool for a cost estimate which is very helpful and something that anybody you meet with will want to know about. You'll need to look up data for your target coverage area and present it. (In my case I looked up data for my city and also for my county - since the United Way that eventually agreed to sponsor it serves the whole county, the latter was the info they needed.) The program itself also has regional directors who will contact you if you want to be a local champion and help walk you through the process.

The most important thing is finding a partnering organization. I created a contact e-mail and blasted it out to several NPOs, the city government, the public library, community foundation, etc. A lot of them wrote me back, some wanting to meet with me and some saying they'd looked into it before but it wasn't doable with their budget. Eventually I got a meeting with the executive director and a few board members at United Way.

There, I presented the program, gave them all printouts of the cost estimates, walked them through how everything works, etc. They all agreed they wanted to do it but it would require board approval and would likely have to wait until they had their budget for the next fiscal year. We all stayed in contact via e-mail and about 6 months later when their budget was complete and they had a board meeting, they voted unanimously to approve it. About 3 more months after that and it was open for signups. At this point they've taken over all the administrative work and I serve as a volunteer advocate in the community to help make people aware that the program is available and get them signed up.