By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
WHILE Dolly Parton may have wowed the crowd at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday night, her influence has been felt even more in Doveton over the past six months.
During that time Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has been trialled across Doveton and Eumemmerring.
The program has been overseen by Doveton College principal Bretton New and aims improve the literacy of children across the country’s disadvantaged communities, giving them a better chance at life.
Dolly is in Australia this week to officially launch her Imagination Libraries, which is already a successful program in America, in partnership with United Way Australia, Mission Australia and Australia Post.
For those families who sign up to the program, a book per month is mailed to each child up to the age of five.
Mr New said he didn’t hesitate to help organise the Imagination Library in Doveton when it was chosen by Dolly to be one of the first in Australia.
He said it had already had a significant impact in the Doveton and Eumemmering area.
“Kids and their families, through no fault of their own, can be in economic trouble and books aren’t a priority,” Mr New said.
“One of the advantages of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library is that it gives children and their families access to experiences that might not be there otherwise.”
United Way Australia representatives came to Doveton College last year to sign up parents to the program and many more have followed since.
Mr New said some toddlers will now have read close to 60 books by the time they start school.
“If a book arrives once a month, it’s an opportunity for students to sit down with parents and read,” he said.
“It gives kids the ability to use their imagination and develop language.”
Imagination Libraries have also been opened in Noble Park, Ballarat and Portland and other locations in the country.
In the first six months of setting up the program in Australia, the United Network signed up 1350 children and distributed more than 4000 books.
On Tuesday Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development Wendy Lovell welcomed the expansion of the program in Victoria following the successful pilot in the Doveton and Eumemmering area last year.
She said it was exciting news that Victorian children will join the “Imagination Library family”, which already includes approximately 1600 communities in the US, Canada and the UK.
“It has the effect of placing these children up to 12 months ahead of children who were not read to every day,” Ms Lovell said
“The evidence is clear – frequent reading over a sustained period of time gives children a head start in life.”
