Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is here in the Goondiwindi Region! Will you sponsor a local child for a lifelong love of reading?

Goondiwindi Region businesses, families and individuals are being asked to sponsor local children to receive the gift of one free book every month until they are five and encourage a lifelong love of reading. Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is the program that puts books into the hands and hearts of children across the world - and it's now right here in the Goondiwindi Region!

Goondiwindi Regional Council, Care Goondiwindi and United Way Australia have partnered with the Imagination Library to provide a hand-selected, age-appropriate, high-quality book each month to registered children.

Where funding permits, every registered child in the region will be given a new book to keep, direct to their mailbox, every month from birth until their fifth birthday. The delivery also includes parent ‘tip sheets’ to help guide parents to engage with the books in ways that are shown to boost language development and early literacy.

Any child born after 1 March 2022 currently residing in the Goondiwindi Local Government Area will be eligible to join, regardless of where they were born. Local hospitals will help new parents to sign up for the program during postnatal care, or else parents can find the registration form online here: https://imaginationlibrary.com/au/affiliate/GOONDIWINDI

Council has agreed to contribute $5,400 per year towards the program and is asking locals to join them in sponsorship to help bring the magic of a library into the home. Businesses or individuals can sign up to sponsor the program here: https://unitedway.secure.force.com/DonateNow/DPILGoondiwindi

Cr Phil O’Shea holds Council’s portfolio for Arts and Culture, and said around 20 local businesses, families and individuals have already signed up to support the program – now he wants to boost that number to 100 if he can.

“We want this program to be as sustainable as possible, and that means getting as much community involvement behind it going into the future,” Cr O’Shea said. “Based upon the latest Census figures, the program will be supporting 750 children per year when it reaches its peak in the fifth year - so we’ll have a bit of work to do.

“I want to give a great big thank you to the 20 or so local families and businesses who have already jumped on the opportunity - now, we want to boost that number to 100 to ensure we can give the gift of lifelong reading and learning to all local children,” he said.

“Research shows that the first five years are critical for brain and language development, and key to developing a love of learning and reading,” Cr O’Shea said. “The impact of the Imagination Library has been widely researched and shows positive increases in key early childhood literacy milestones.

“I think we can all agree that childhood literacy is such a worthwhile investment and will reap lifelong benefits for our region,” he said. “Research suggests that 85 per cent of brain development occurs by age 5 - we know that homes with more books tend to have better educational outcomes for children, and that means setting them up for a higher chance of success in the future.

“The Imagination Library means that all Goondiwindi Region children can have a great selection of books at home, to support what’s already on offer at our local libraries in Goondiwindi, Inglewood and Texas.”

The investment for each new child enrolled in the program is just $9 per month - $108 per year, or $540 for the full five years of the program. The donation is tax-deductible.

Program founder Dolly Parton has said that the Imagination Library aims to inspire children and help turn their dreams into the promise of a bright future. The Imagination Library mails more than 1.8 million high-quality books each month and, since launching in 1995, it's gifted well over 160 million free books.