United Way Australia welcomes Coalition promise to boost ECEC literacy 

United Way Australia has welcomed a commitment from the Coalition to boost childhood literacy in the critical years before school.

Shadow Minister for Education the Hon Sarah Henderson pledged an investment of $3.8 million in the Imagination Library, a popular early literacy program in communities around the country, helping thousands of children to build essential skills before school by supplying books, working in close collaboration with families and communities. 

As the national partner for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, United Way Australia has already helped more than 108,000 Australian children to develop a love of reading, distributing nearly 1.5 million books over the last 11 years.

“With Government investment, we can bring books into thousands more homes, helping parents with shared reading with their children – at no cost to them, and with support from our team,” CEO Clayton Noble said. 

“The evidence shows that our early literacy program is enormously effective, even in communities and families facing tough circumstances,” he added. 

New research demonstrates the powerful impact of the Imagination Library in Tamworth (NSW) – the location with highest program participation in Australia:

• Children in Tamworth enrolled in the Imagination Library are being read to more often, for longer durations and have more books in their home than the average Australian child – despite Tamworth sitting well below the national average for socio-economic indicators.
• When children are read to regularly from birth, they are more likely to show emerging literacy skills by the time they are three years of age. 

United Way Australia will continue tracking the children in Tamworth, to assess the impact of the Imagination Library on their school readiness and their performance in standardised tests, such as NAPLAN.