Launching The Imagination 2d

[Rosalia Hollingworth]

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Rob Spiro is a serial entrepreneur who just moved from San Francisco to Nantes. He founded Aardvark, which was acquired by Google in 2010 for $50 million. At Google, as a Product Manager, he led the teams that launched Hangouts and Google+. He left Google to found Good Eggs in 2011, the local food online grocer, where he grew the company to tens of millions in revenue and hundreds of employees. He hired a professional CEO to take the company to the next level & moved to Nantes in 2016! He is now in the process of launching Imagination Machine, a new world-class startup accelerator in Nantes.

On Wednesday, May 29th, Community Foundation Sonoma County, First Five Sonoma County, and the Sonoma County Imagination Library Advisory Board held a press conference to announce the launch of the Sonoma County Imagination Library.

CFSC CEO & President scar Chvez spoke at the event, along with Angie Dillon Shore, Executive Director of First Five Sonoma County, Chris Coursey, the District 3 representative of the Board of Supervisors, and Beth Fox, chair of the Sonoma County Imagination Library Advisory Board.

scar announced a $50,000 donation from Community Foundation Sonoma County, as well as a $50,000 donation from First Five Sonoma County. This money, which will be matched by the State of California as a part of an initiative to bring the Imagination Library to all of California, will be important seed money as the program launches on June 1st.

The Sonoma County Imagination Library will bring free books to all children in Sonoma County aged 0-5. California is the first state to offer the option of Bilingual books, which allows parents to choose between either English-only books, or books that have both English and Spanish. You can learn more about the Sonoma County Imagination Library, including how to sign your child up to receive FREE books, here.

It is fortuitous that we are here today to launch this very important initiative at the Barbara Daniels-Love Head Start center. I recall, as a young boy living on a farm, my little sister Rosie was enrolled in the home-based Head Start program. A home-based educator would come to our home and work with my mom and little sister. This option was available for families living in remote and rural areas, and we lived out in the middle of nowhere.

It is deeply personal and heartwarming to know that children like my little sister Rosie will have access to a library of rich content to feed and nurture their creativity and imagination and not default to using salt and a cookie sheet to learn how to read.

We are honored and excited to be part of the group working hard to bring the Sonoma County Imagination Library to our community. I especially want to thank Angie Dillon Shore, Executive Director of First 5, and Amy Holder, our VP for Community Impact, for their vision and commitment to bringing the Dolly Parton Imagination Library to our community.

Reading with our families is such a meaningful activity. Whether you read with your kids before bed, in the library, or even just the back of the cereal box, reading with your children can have lifelong, positive impacts on their well-being (and yours!).

Dolly Parton was inspired by her father, who was the smartest man she knew but who was unable to read or write, to build a program that would foster an early love of reading and learning in her community. Since 1995, her program has grown into one of the most impactful early childhood literacy resources in the United States.

As an organization dedicated to the long-term well-being of our community, we know that making early investments in our youngest residents has long-term benefits for children, their families, and our greater community.

Despite how important kindergarten readiness is, the 2022-2023 READY report found that less than 1 in 5 children in Sonoma County are entering kindergarten ready to succeed, a sharp decline from 40% in 2016. This gap only widens when factoring in racial and economic disparities, something confirmed by the 2021 Portrait of Sonoma Report, research that we co-funded. The report found that a concrete step towards closing this gap is by increasing access to quality preschool education, particularly for children of color and from low-income backgrounds.

The Sonoma County Imagination Library is one way to help close this widening disparity in access to the resources needed for all children to be successful. Closing this opportunity gap is the only way we will make progress towards improving kindergarten readiness in Sonoma County.

Not only does the Imagination Library send up to 60 free books to children and their families, but California is the first state to offer bilingual books! That means families in Sonoma County will have the option to choose books in both English and Spanish.

CFSC Co-Hosts Nonprofit Advocacy 101 In February, Community Foundation Sonoma County co-hosted Nonprofit Advocacy 101, in collaboration with Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County, the Peter E Haas Jr. Family Fund, and the Santa Rosa Junior College Foundation. Bolder Advocacy, a program of Alliance for Justice, led the event, which was

During the 2023 legislative session, under Senate Bill 5506, $1.7 million was appropriated to DELC to help administer and expand the program statewide. The state's investment in the Imagination Library is allowing local partners to quickly launch book deliveries to as many children as possible across the state. The books delivered monthly are free to all children and families who sign up for the program.

Recent studies suggest participation in the Imagination Library is positively and significantly associated with higher measures of early language and math development. A panel of early childhood literacy experts takes great care in choosing books that meet the different needs of children as they progress from birth to age five.

To learn more about becoming a community partner, contact Rachel King at rk...@imaginationlibrary.com. To enroll in this program and learn more as it is expanded across the state, visit www.imaginationlibrary.com.

While Eugene H. Peterson might be best known for his award-winning paraphrase of the Bible, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, he was also a prolific writer of over 30 books, a Presbyterian pastor for 29 years, and a professor of spiritual theology for six years. Peterson had an immense influence across generational and denominational boundaries.

The Peterson archives will be installed at the seminary in early 2021. Later next year, two D.Min. cohorts will be offered through the Center, one exploring pastoral imagination and the other centered on writing. Due to the pandemic, the timing for other gatherings and public offerings remains in flux.

Currently, more than 54,000 children across Oregon receive the gift of a monthly book through 55 community programs. Families in Oregon who are already registered with existing programs do not need to re-register and will continue to receive books without any interruptions.

In 2023, she worked with the Legislature to pass House Bill 3198, known as the Early Literacy Success Initiative, allocating $90 million to be distributed across every school district in the state to strengthen preparation and support for current teachers and school leaders. All 197 school districts in Oregon have applied for funding from the initiative, which also includes a special focus on kids from birth through five.

Last year, Governor Kotek also established the Early Literacy Educator Prep Council to strengthen the preparation of teachers and school administrators to instruct elementary students on reading and writing.

Families can visit www.imaginationlibrary.com to find out if the program is available in their area or to sign up to be notified when the program expands to their community.

To learn more about becoming a community partner, contact Rachel King at rk...@imaginationlibrary.com.

The Imagination Library is a program developed by The Dollywood Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by Dolly Parton. Since launching in 1995, the Imagination Library has become the preeminent, international early childhood book-gifting program.

In addition to remarks from Director Chatterjee, Governor Tina Kotek and House Majority Leader Ben Bowman made comments and were joined by representatives from The Dollywood Foundation and local program partners. Dolly Parton provided remarks by video, concluding with an Oregon twist on her classic I Will Always Love You."

Currently, over 54,000 children across Oregon receive the gift of a monthly book through 55 community programs. Books are free to the family regardless of family income. The Department of Early Learning and Care is working with local community partners and The Dollywood Foundation to expand.

Families can visit www.imaginationlibrary.com to find out if the program is available in their area or to sign up to be notified when the program expands to their community. To learn more about becoming a community partner, contact Rachel King at rk...@imaginationlibrary.com

During an event at the Bangor Public Library, Governor Mills announced that 4,500 eligible Maine children are currently receiving free, high-quality, age-appropriate books through the program, which is respected as the world's preeminent, international early childhood book-gifting program. At Governor Mills' direction, the Maine State Library is working to expand the program to all sixteen counties.

"My mother introduced me to the library, encouraged me to read books of every kind, and instilled in me a lifelong love of reading. I'm thrilled to help expand the Dolly Parton Imagination Library across our state so that thousands of Maine children can strengthen their reading skills and learn to love reading,"said Governor Janet Mills. "I thank the one-and-only Dolly Parton for working with my Administration to bring this important program to Maine.

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