[Libs-Or] Funds available for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in Oregon Small Counties

[Duke, Pat]

All,
Many of you know about Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. (www.imaginationlibrary.org<http://www.imaginationlibrary.org>  Click on Start a Program at the top. Be sure to look at the Resources for latest research.)  DPIL mails well selected age appropriate books to children under 5 years old within a community once a month. It is an awesome program that has been shown to increase daily reading by families, and children enrolled in the program perform as much as 30% better on kindergarten readiness assessments than peers who are not enrolled.  The program is inexpensive, costing the local affiliate only $25 per year per child for 12 high quality books mailed directly to a child.  And of course for families enrolled in the program, there are no costs at all!
 In Wilsonville, we have been a DPIL affiliate for 5 years.  We currently have 770 children signed up to receive books and 740 have graduated from the program. We have found that families are very happy with the program, it is an important way to reach children who do not make regular visits to the library, and it is exceedingly easy to administer.
About a month ago, an anonymous private foundation decided it would like to spread Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in small rural counties in Oregon. The foundation would like to take 50% of the monthly costs for books and mailings off the table for a program's first three years in these counties. Under the proposal, a new affiliate starting up before June 2018 would only pay $12.50 per year per child.
A qualifying county needs to be outside of the Willamette Valley and have a population of less than 100,000. There are 24 Oregon counties that meet these criteria. They are:

Oregon Counties that are Eligible for 50% Funding for First 3 Years of DPIL Affiliation
Affiliates within these counties must be established between June 2017 and June 2018

1.     Baker County

2.     Clatsop County

3.     Columbia County

4.     Coos County

5.     Crook County

6.     Curry County

7.     Gilliam County

8.     Grant County

9.     Harney County

10. Hood River County

11. Jefferson County

12. Josephine County

13. Klamath County

14. Lake County

15. Lincoln County

16. Malheur County

17. Morrow County

18. Sherman County

19. Tillamook County

20. Umatilla County

21. Union County

22. Wallowa County

23. Wasco County

24. Wheeler County
Our task is to identify partners in these counties that would like to explore starting a program for their county. We can begin by talking about possibilities for your community and a pathway to enroll an affiliate. A partner does need to be a 501(c)3 charity. This can be a library friends group or foundation, a local Kiwanis or Rotary group's charity arm, or another non-profit. (In Wilsonville, we use the Library's foundation.)
 For those interested we are also looking at having a series of regional meetings in September. We will bring out the DPIL regional director for  Oregon. You can hear directly from her about how the program works and get questions answered.  We will come to you.
Please reply directly to me if you are interested in talking about possibilities for your community, if you know an organization that might want to partner, or even if you just know a person we should talk to.
With this exceedingly generous offer, I believe we have an incredible opportunity to improve educational levels of kids throughout our state's rural areas.
 Please respond directly to me and we'll start talking about how to make it work for your community.
 Cheers,
 pat

Patrick Duke
Library Director
Wilsonville  Public Library

503.570.1590
503.682.8685 FAX

duke at wilsonvillelibrary.org<mailto:duke at wilsonvillelibrary.org>
www.wilsonvillelibrary.org<http://www.wilsonvillelibrary.org/>
Facebook.com/Wilsonville-Library<https://www.facebook.com/Wilsonville-Library-178125978892985/>
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8200 SW Wilsonville Rd, Wilsonville, OR 97070

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