Continued expansion and promotion of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library (DPIL) program has fueled the quarterly increase of the total books being mailed to Children in the GWCHF DPIL service area.  While the trend is a rolling total, the upward trend indicated strong partnerships that have significantly impacted the growth and exposure to the DPIL program.

Contributing Factors:

• Partnership with local libraries. 
• Promotion of the service through social media and other media channels (website, etc.)

Limiting Factors:

• Library’s inability to attract patrons (parents, grandparents and/or other caregivers).
• Families lack of follow through (for whatever reason) with provided DPIL resource information.
• Inconsistent processes for providing all families with DPIL resource information.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library provides high quality, age appropriate, free books to children up to age 5. Each enrolled child receives a specially selected book mailed directly to their homes. A child enrolled as a newborn has the potential to receive 60 books to build their own personal library.

“Without a strong foundation in reading, children are left behind at the beginning of their education. They lag in every class, year after year because more than 85 percent of the curriculum is taught by reading. And by the end of third grade, 74 percent of struggling readers won’t ever catch up. In fact, one of the most important predictors of graduating from high school is reading proficiently by the end of third grade.” - The Children’s Reading Foundation.

• Libraries - Watertown Public Library,, Jefferson, Waterloo, Johnson, Hustisford, Reeseville, Lake Mills, Juneau. 
• Dodge and Jefferson County Head Start
• Lake Mills Clinic 
• Watertown Regional Medical Center (WRMC)/Labor and Delivery
• WRMC/Center for Women’s Health 
• WRMC/Johnson Creek Clinic
• Jefferson County Birth to Three
• Early Childhood Education partners 
• Rock River Community Clinic
• Watertown Family Connections
• Watertown, Jefferson Co.,Dodge Co. Health Departments (future)
• Healthcare (expanding to more area clinics - future)
• Municipalities (future)
• Chambers of Commerce e-blasts

• Partnering with area organizations that have access to children ages 0-
  • Promoting DPIL through area libraries (see Partners section
• Promoting DPIL on social media
  • TalkReadPlay Facebook page & Instagram

• Community Event participation (Johnson Creek Library currently does this

• Expanding promotion to area businesses (e.g., grocery stores, laundromats, salons/barber shops). 

• Working directly with city/county park and recreation departments (summer programming, classes etc.). 

• Additional exposure/promotion at larger community events such as county fairs, riverfest etc.

• Utilize DPIL database to identify communities with low registration percentages. 

• Contact partners within lower registration communities to understand what can be done to further promote/increase children and families exposed to DPIL. 

• Further social media exposure (youtube, twitter, tik tok)

Numbers represent a rolling total of books mailed, aggregating at the end of each quarter.