Impacts

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Literacy is Life

Kindergarten reading-readiness is a first foundational skill, one that determines success throughout a child’s school career and life. Begin Bright is the Nashville Public Library’s early literacy plan to set our community’s children up for kindergarten reading success. This simple yet groundbreaking initiative involves delivering a Little Library filled with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Books and corresponding resources to every childcare center in the county, providing on-demand digital training for caregivers and teachers, and partnering with Vanderbilt University’s Prenatal to 3 Policy Impact Center to study the results, creating an actionable, measurable model that will transform the early literacy landscape.

Access to books is one part of solving the literacy problem; parents and childcare professionals must also know how to effectively share these books and impart a love of reading to children.

The Begin Bright Plan

NPL's Three Goals Directly Position a Child for Reading Readiness

The Research

In 2022, NPL and NPLF engaged early education expert, Lisa Wiltshire, to scrutinize NPL’s existing early literacy programs and evaluate the local and national landscape, aiming to propose transformative strategies for impacting children aged 0-5 across the city.

Lisa collaborated with the Library and its Bringing Books to Life team, conducting focus groups with staff and community partners. Upon receiving her comprehensive recommendations in October 2023, the NPL Board issued a resolution of support affirming its unwavering dedication to preparing Nashville’s children for kindergarten reading-readiness by fostering literacy and education from the earliest stages of childhood.

What Nashville Learned from Philadelphia

While developing the Begin Bright campaign for Nashville, staff looked at the results of a 2-year program that put high-quality children’s books in urban Philadelphia child care centers and provided training for caregivers to help children get more from the books. The results were encouraging.

Begin Bright Steering Committee

Katy Varney, Chair
Taryn Anderson
Melinda Balser
Tricia Carswell
Billy Eskind
Kate Ezell
David Fox
Lucy Haynes
Don Holmes
Neil Krugman
Lonnell Matthews
Lee Molette
Kristin Paine
Joelle Phillips
Bethany Rhoten
Byron Trauger
Patrick Theobald
Jerry Williams
Nahed Zehr