NYN Media
New York is still helping Dolly Parton give books to kids
OCFS is awarding $1 million in grants this year for Parton’s Imagination Library
Dolly Parton reads her book, "The Coat of Many Colors" to schoolchildren at The Library of Congress in 2018. Shannon Finney/Getty Images
Dolly Parton is being remembered not just for her hooks and her looks – but for her books.
The Queen of Country Music’s “Imagination Library” program sends out a book each month to kids aged 0 to 5 across the United States and four other countries. Parton died last week, but New York had already doubled down on the program months ago, and is administering $1 million in grants through the Office of Children and Family Services to sign kids up and distribute the books on the local level.
“We value the science here in New York state,” OCFS Commissioner DaMia Harris-Madden said. “We know that early exposure to language and reading and books are really essential for the healthy development of our children and their brain development.”
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library selects the books and sends them out, but requires local partners to cover the costs. OCFS already awarded more than $600,000 this year in grants to nonprofits, libraries and school districts, which Harris-Madden said would send books to more than 170,000 kids in the state. There’s another $400,000 to award, and the agency is accepting solicitations of interest through Sept. 28, focusing on nonprofits in New York City.
The funding is well short of the $3.5 million, or even $7 million that some proponents sought to make the program go truly statewide. But New York’s $1 million investment comes at a time when several other states have pulled back funding and sought private philanthropy to fill the gap.
“Dolly’s program really does help to get to some of the marginalized children … where we want to close the achievement gap,” Harris-Madden said. “So I’m a fan of both of her music, her acting and what she’s doing for the community.”