Dolly Parton's Imagination Library: Tackling Global Learning Crisis

We're made of cells … and stories. From the time we're born, stories – spoken, read and sung – help us create not only language, but also our own sense of self. Stories feed our culture, and strengthen knowledge, families and community. 

Parents, caregivers and other experts know that building language is fundamental to a child's development. The more we read with our children (especially in the early years), the stronger their pre-literacy skills become. And the stronger those skills become, the better their reading comprehension will be. Children who can read well by the end of third grade are more likely to graduate from high school or secondary school, studies show. And we all know that graduation is key to professional development and economic stability.

The United Nations marks Sept. 8 as International Literacy Day “to remind the public of the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights” and to build a more literate, sustainable world. 

It's more important than ever to focus on building literacy skills in children and youth. The pandemic has worsened the global literacy crisis, experts agree – disproportionately impacting children from lower- and medium-income countries, under resourced neighborhoods and communities of racial and ethnic minorities.

As the World Bank found in its 2022 research, the impact of COVID on basic education cannot be overstated:  

• Schoolchildren around the world missed an estimated 2 trillion hours, losing 1.5 year of learning.
• One in 10 countries closed their schools for over 40 weeks – a month longer than a full school year. 
• The most affected region was Latin America, where its Learning Poverty Index increased from 57% in 2019 to 70% by 2022.  
• In high-income countries (like the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Germany), students who'd already been struggling were left behind, impacting their mental health as well as learning. 
• The UN Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring that all children can read by 2030 is far out of reach. 

One strategy that United Ways around the world are using to boost childhood literacy is Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Started by the country superstar in 1995 in response to childhood illiteracy rates in her home state of Tennessee, the program provides children a new, age-appropriate book every month for the first five years of life – for free (regardless of income). Today, this inspirational program spans five countries, and has provided 213 million books to 2.5 million children around the world, along with parent resources.

United Way has helped make that happen. Across ou