Mission

Wilkes Community Partnership for Children, also known as Wilkes Smart Start, was established in 1994 with the mission to help Wilkes County children enter kindergarten healthy and ready to succeed by serving children birth to age five.

What We Do

Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, Wilkes County has over 4,000 children birth to age five. Many of these children live in poverty (over 25%) with families that are unemployed and lack books in their home. Children living in poverty are at higher risk for school failure.

The Wilkes Community Partnership for Children established the Imagination Library in December 2013 and delivered its first monthly shipment of books to 205 children in February 2014. Since this time membership has grown to 720 children (6/12/14 enrollment figures). Over 3,658 books have been delivered to children in the inaugural seven month period! Our goal is to reach 1,000 children by December 2014.

The Imagination Library helps to alleviate gaps by delivering to the homes of enrolled children a free, quality, age appropriate, book each month. Providing books for this population is especially valuable due to their probable inability to purchase them on their own. It may be the only hope that these children will be able to start school with all the necessary precursor skills to reading needed to make them successful.

Funding for the Imagination Library is through private donations and grants. To evaluate the effectiveness of the Imagination Library the Partnership for Children seeks to develop an online survey. The online survey will evaluate the progress toward each of the program objectives and results will be used to assist in fund raising for the Imagination Library.