Parents with children in their arms, in strollers or at their sides stood in line Saturday outside the White Branch Library on Butternut Street to claim a free copy of “The Little Engine That Could.” The kids’ classic is supposed to be volume one in a personal library that will grow each month until the children start kindergarten. Imagination...
County Executive Joanie Mahonie was one of the celebrity readers who helped kick of "Imagination Library" Saturday in a tent outside the White Branch Library on Butternut Street. The event drew crowds of families who signed up for free books.Parents with children in their arms, in strollers or at their sides stood in line Saturday outside the White Branch Library on Butternut Street to claim a free copy of “The Little Engine That Could.”
The kids’ classic is supposed to be volume one in a personal library that will grow each month until the children start kindergarten.
Students from the North Side Learning Center marched in a parade to the nearby White Branch Library to take part in the kick-off of a new literacy program. Yusuf Soule, program director at the center, is in line behind the children.Imagination Library is a new program that will mail a free book a month to preschool-aged children who live a targeted slice of the city’s North Side. The area is the 13202 and 13208 ZIP codes, which cover the neighborhoods around Franklin and Dr. Weeks elementary schools.
The book-of-the-month program is sponsored by the Literacy Coalition of Onondaga County. If parents who live in the target area sign up, Imagination Library will provide books to children from birth until they turn 5 and enter kindergarten.
The intent is to foster the early literacy skills the children need to succeed in kindergarten, coalition Executive Director Virginia Carmody said. Many city children sorely need the help.
Half the children in the target area and 51 percent citywide are not ready for kindergarten when it comes to early literacy skills, based on test data from the Syracuse school district and provided by the coalition.
Children who start out behind may never catch up and that puts them at risk of never graduating from high school, Carmody said.
Too many children enter kindergarten unready to learn and on top of that some don’t register on time, said John Eberle, vice president of grants and community initiatives with the Central New York Community Foundation.
“Can you imagine? I mean, you’ve just started out in kindergarten, you show up a week late and you only have two or three hundred words when you should have, maybe, what, 1,500?” he said. “I confess, this is our best collaborative attempt across the community to try to begin to address it.”
The foundation is a partner in the coalition and provided $50,000 to fund Imagination Library for three years, Eberle said. Imagination Library is a program of the Dollywood Foundation, established by musician Dolly Parton.
It does more than mail books to children. The coalition will build a database so it can tell families about services, provide tips on preparing for school or alert them to events at their local library, Carmody said.
The coalition plans to track whether getting the books to children is effective. The Syracuse school district tests children’s readiness for kindergarten and will share that information, Carmody said. The coalition can compare the performance of Imagination Library children to that of children who did not get the books.
Because of that, the coalition will know within a short period of time if the effort made a difference, said Frank Lazarski, president of United Way of Central New York, a coalition partner. If it works, the coalition can consider expanding Imagination Library.
“If it’s not working, we’re going to say let’s take a step back and look at it,” Lazarski he said.
The coalition picked the North Side ZIP codes because they are part of a state designated “Literacy Zone” that has adult literacy centers. Their staff will sign families up for Imagination Library and help them work with their children on literacy. Other organizations, including St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center, will sign families up, too.
The coalition estimates it will enroll 500 children a year. At the Saturday kick-off, it signed up 127, topping its 100-child goal, Carmody said.
Idris Jidhaye was among the parents who signed up.
He has three children, two of whom are young enough for Imagination Library.
“I want them to read and maybe get more education from these books,” said Jidhaye, a Somalian who recently came here from a refugee camp in Kenya.
Contact Maureen Nolan 470-2185 or mnolan@syracuse.com