Imagination Library resolution advances
Senate Minority Whip Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, testifies Tuesday on Senate Joint Resolution 54 in support of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library during a Senate Families and Children Committee meeting. A high-resolution photo can be found here.
FRANKFORT — — Reading can open doors for young people that are otherwise shut, and with this mindset, legislators on Tuesday advanced a Senate joint resolution in support of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
During the Senate Families and Children Committee meeting, Senate Minority Whip Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, and others testified that through the initiative, children from birth to age five can obtain books delivered to their mailboxes at no charge.
“I’ve been working 9-to-5 with Imagination Library to think of ways that we can expand this program so that every Kentucky kid has access to it, and the options we’ve come up with are varied as a coat of many colors,” she said. “And they include things like automatically enrolling our kids in foster care, collaborating with our WIC program around enrollment opportunities and studying how people can enroll as part of the birth certificate process like other states have taken steps to do.”
Senate Joint Resolution 54 would direct and organize this work, requiring the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services, the state Department for Libraries and Archives, and Imagination Library to work together and bring ideas to expand access, Armstrong said.
Armstrong thanked Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, and U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey – a former state lawmaker – for their work to bring Imagination Library to Kentucky.
“This has always been a bipartisan program supported greatly by this general assembly, and I just wanted to say to President Stivers and Congressman McGarvey, Kentucky families will always love you for your work with DPIL,” she said.
Sen. Amanda Mays Bledsoe, R-Lexington, said she’s a big fan of Imagination Library. She asked about local match funding and said it can be a challenge for some communities.
Libby Suttles, state director of Imagination Library of Kentucky, said work is being done to roll out a system to focus on sustainability for expansion of local programs.
“We meet with every partner when they start the program and do a five-year cost estimator to determine what type of financial sustainability a program needs to have,” she said.
Suttles said she and others are working closely with all partners on a variety of funding – multiple grants, family foundations, spelling bees, Dolly Parton galas, sing-alongs and other fundraisers.
“So, we’re really hoping to be very creative to support local programs to reach their financial goals and sustainability,” Suttles said.
Suttles thanked Armstrong for creating the resolution, which gives authority to align resources between the health cabinet and department of libraries. She said this will provide greater outreach to health departments, hospitals, the HANDS (Health Access Nurturing Development Services) program and the Kentucky Department of Corrections. She said some inmates not only read to their children; they hone their own skills.
“We have soft reading spaces in all prisons across Kentucky, so when children come to visit their parents, there’s an opportunity to pull a Dolly book off of a bookshelf, sit on a carpeted area, sit at a table, use crayons, talk about books,” she said.
Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, R-Alexandria, said she has a daughter who was born in 2010, and those in Campbell County did a great job of making Imagination Library available to children. She asked how recipients continue to received books after they move.
Lindsey B. Westerfield, community engagement coordinator of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Kentucky, said the program is connected with the change of address registry of the United States Postal Service.
“When a book maybe arrives at a mailbox, and there is a forwarding address that’s been listed with the postal service, that will flag in the system,” she said.
Sen. Robin L. Webb, R-Grayson, said Dolly Parton’s father couldn’t read and Parton was inspired to do something positive. Imagination Library is a good way to help overcome illiteracy, she said.
“I think that is an extension that is a natural one that’s going to be very beneficial for reintegration of those inmates and the educational aspect of those children as well,” she said.
Sen. Keturah J. Herron, D-Louisville, said she has met with program representatives.
“I’m super impressed by the work that is happening and really, the cost. I think that when you look at and you break down the cost of 60 books over those five years, it’s less than $1.50,” she said.
Senate Minority Caucus Chair Reginald L. Thomas, D-Lexington, said education begins at birth, and the program is vital to his granddaughter and all children of Kentucky.
“It’s so important that we start emphasizing literacy and reading, and that’s what helps children become kindergarten ready,” he said.