A program aiming to increase early childhood literacy and kindergarten readiness levels has been granted $50,000 in funding, according to the Syracuse City Common Council.

Imagination Library, a national literacy program, is administered by the Literacy Coalition of Onondaga County. Children between the ages 0-5 years old whose parent or guardian lives in Onondaga County are eligible to participate. After enrollment an age-appropriate book is sent to the participants’ house each month until their 5th birthday — at no cost to their parents.

Kimberly Kemp, program director for early childhood education in the Literacy Coalition of Onondaga County, said the funding came from Onondaga County, Syracuse City, CNY Community Foundation, the Dorothy and Marshall M. Reisman Foundation and individuals.

Country singer Dolly Parton began the program in her hometown in Tennessee, Kemp said. Parton saw that many children were unable to access books as it was a rural community and their parents did not have cars to drive them to the library, so she decided to start the program, Kemp said.

The program started in central New York in May 2010. They first started at the north side of the city where the lowest kindergarten scores were, and then it became a citywide program, Kemp said.

The program went countywide last March, Kemp said. The books sent to participants’ houses also included reading tips for parents.

“The program has been very successful, we have reached 11,000 books in the county,” Kemp said.

She added that the kindergarden readiness scores of the participants have also been affected.

Le Moyne College has been doing research on the project for the Literacy Coalition, Kemp said. The findings of this research have been published in August 2015.

Children who had been enrolled in the program for three years or more had kindergarten readiness scores that were 13.7 percent better than kids who weren’t enrolled, according to the study.

“Imagination Library is an international program as well and just hit one million books a month,” Kemp said.

Kemp added that having this funding for the program was beneficial because it showed there was community support for early childhood education and people were aware of the importance of early childhood literacy.

Susan Boyle, a Syracuse Common Councilor, said organizations like the Literacy Coalition are important because they encourage reading at a young level. She said the coalition had literacy volunteers that worked with adults and the immigrant population in Syracuse in addition to Imagination Library.

Boyle said studies show the more books younger kids had read to them, the more words they learned.

“It’s a good opportunity to encourage parents to spend time with kids as well,” she said.

She added that Imagination Library was also important in that the more books children read, the better they will eventually do on ELA exams and Syracuse will then see better scores in schools.

“You can’t have too many books, you can’t have too many readings,” Boyle said.

Published on November 1, 2016 at 10:52 pm

Contact Deniz: dsahintu@syr.edu