Smart Start Creates Impact by Recognizing the Importance of Early Literacy
In celebration of the upcoming new year, Smart Start is celebrating our hard work and taking this time to recognize the role of Smart Start local partnerships in each community. Smart Start is working across the state to create a brighter future for each child in every community. Throughout the first weeks of December we will be showcasing the impact of Smart Start by diving into our work with early care and education, family support, early literacy, health and nutrition, and our innovation throughout the pandemic. To learn more about Smart Start, you can read Smart Start’s 2020-2021 Impact Report.
Smart Start local partnerships recognize the importance of early literacy on child development. Local partnerships throughout the state administer literacy programs such as Reach Out and Read, Raising a Reader, and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL) to develop early literacy skills in young children.
In 2020-2021, Smart Start local partnerships have served:
– 79,302 children through the literacy program Reach Out and Read (ROR)
– 289,590 children through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
– Over 3,000 children through Raising a Reader (RAR)
– More than 1,500 caregivers in other early literacy programs
In particular, DPIL has had widespread reach throughout the state of North Carolina. Through additional funding allocated to DPIL from the General Assembly, Smart Start has been able to offer the program to every child in North Carolina. By June 2021, 
Smart Start has distributed more than 8.6 million books to North Carolina’s children— and this number only continues to grow.
Children have gained increased literacy skills through these literacy programs but have also developed a love of literacy.
One parent remarked “My boys and I have always been excited when a new books come in the mail….So many of these stories have sparked countless hours of quality time, conversation, laughter, and have touched our hearts. They have helped my boys to develop interests in different hobbies, languages, perspectives, social and emotional understanding.”
You can learn more about the literacy programs administered by Smart Start local partnerships by reading the 2020-2021 Impact Report
