Walton Family Foundation Investment Will Support Jefferson and Phillips County Families Through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS: Arkansas Imagination Library (ARIL) is expanding early literacy, parent engagement, and Pre-K literacy support in Jefferson and Phillips Counties through a new two-year initiative supported by the Walton Family Foundation.
The two-year initiative will focus on increasing access to high-quality books, strengthening parent-child reading routines, and supporting preschool educators through literacy-focused professional development.
The grant will help expand Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library enrollment to approximately 80% of eligible children ages 0–5 in both counties by May 2028.
Through the initiative, ARIL will:
• Increase access to high-quality books for children ages 0–5 through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
• Deliver more than 73,000 books directly to children’s homes during the grant period
• Provide ongoing parent engagement programming focused on literacy-rich conversations and “serve and return” parent-child interaction
• Support Pre-K educators with professional learning using Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library books as high-quality instructional materials
• Strengthen alignment between literacy activities in the classroom and literacy activities in the home
The initiative addresses persistent literacy challenges in Jefferson and Phillips Counties, where many students enter kindergarten unprepared and a majority of third graders currently perform below grade-level reading proficiency on state assessments.
“Strong early literacy foundations change the trajectory of a child’s education and future opportunities,” said Dr. Charlotte Parham, Executive Director of Arkansas Imagination Library. “This initiative will help us strengthen home literacy environments, support parents and teachers as literacy leaders, and expand access to books and literacy support for hundreds of additional children in Jefferson and Phillips Counties. We are deeply grateful to the Walton Family Foundation for helping make this work possible.”
The initiative supports both children and caregivers by combining direct book access with parent engagement and educator support.
“My daughter loves reading each evening, and her Dolly Parton books are such an important part of our home library,” said a Jefferson County mother. “We love seeing the various types of stories, characters, and authors. It’s so much fun to make animal sounds or point out favorite colors while reading together.”
“Children build important learning habits long before they enter a classroom,” said Tina Fletcher, senior program officer for the Walton Family Foundation’s Home Region Program. “This partnership helps more children in the Delta develop a love of reading early and gives families additional support as they prepare children for school.”
Arkansas Imagination Library currently serves more than 82,000 children each month across all 75 Arkansas counties through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
Thanks to a statewide cost-sharing partnership with the Arkansas Department of Education, every local investment in Arkansas Imagination Library helps expand access to books and literacy support for young children across Arkansas.
About Arkansas Imagination Library
Arkansas Imagination Library is a statewide 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that partners with The Dollywood Foundation and 50+ local program partners in all 75 counties in Arkansas to increase childhood literacy and promote school readiness. All eligible children in Arkansas (ages 0 to 5) can register for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library – at no cost to families. Each child enrolled in the Imagination Library receives one book per month in the mail until the child’s 5th birthday.
To enroll a child and find a list of Local Program Partners, visit arkansasimaginationlibrary.org.
About Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
Since launching in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has become the preeminent early childhood book-gifting program in the world. The flagship program of The Dollywood Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, has giftedover 300 million free books in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and The Republic of Ireland. The Imagination Library mails more than 3.7 million
high-quality, age-appropriate books directly to children’s homes every month. One in every 6 children under the age of five in the United States receives Imagination Library books.
Dolly Parton envisioned creating a lifelong love of reading and inspiring children to Dream More, Learn More, Care More and Be More. The program’s impact has been widely researched, and results demonstrate its positive impact on early childhood development and literacy skills. Penguin Random House is the exclusive publisher of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
For more information, please visit imaginationlibrary.com.
About the Walton Family Foundation
The Walton Family Foundation is at its core, a family-led foundation. Three generations of the descendants of our founders, Sam and Helen Walton, and their spouses, work together to lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. We work in three areas: improving education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support, and investing in our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. To learn more, visit waltonfamilyfoundation.org.
