Pediatric patients can receive free books through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
Introduction to these programs will span pediatric service lines at the hospital and includes patients in the neonatal intensive care unit, pediatric emergency center and all other eligible children who meet the age requirements.
By Casandra Andrews
candrews@health.southalabama.edu
Through a partnership with the United Way of Southwest Alabama, patients at USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital and its clinics now have the opportunity to be introduced to and join the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
At no cost to families, this program provides (by mail) free age-appropriate monthly books to children from birth to age 5 who subscribe to the program. The United Way of Southwest Alabama is providing print materials about this program that will be placed in hospital rooms and in discharge folders of pediatric patients.
“We are so grateful for our partnership with United Way and this exciting new opportunity to share such an enriching program with our patients and their caregivers,” said Deborah Browning, MSN, R.N., CENP, chief executive officer at Children’s & Women’s Hospital. “Reading to children is such an important part of the developmental process. We know that children who are read to are more likely to develop successful reading habits that benefit them throughout their lives.”
The print materials include QR codes for joining Imagination Library and a program known as The Basics, which is an initiative to help parents, caregivers, families, and children during the first five years of life, which is when 80% of brain growth occurs. The Basics is a community strategy to support learning and brain development among infants and toddlers. It consists of five evidence-based parenting and caregiving tenets that support children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development from birth to age 5.
Introduction to these programs will span pediatric service lines at the hospital and includes patients in the neonatal intensive care unit, pediatric emergency center and all other eligible children who meet the age requirements.
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by giving free books each month to children from birth to age 5. It works with local program partners to help fund and sustain the program. Alabama’s investment in the Imagination Library allows local partners such as the United Way to quickly launch book deliveries to as many children as possible across the state.
