In the Yoncalla school district, our system wasn’t designed to provide opportunities to see kindergartners until they showed up on the first day of school. This made it tough to get to know their strengths and needs. We wanted to know their families earlier and share school resources and guidance.
Change Idea:
We started having a yearly evening baby shower in honor of every new parent in the community. Parents invited guests and we invited partners who could provide needed resources like library cards, WIC, medical and dental services, breastfeeding support, etc.
We hoped to come together as a community and celebrate new babies. We also hoped to have an ongoing connection to families, prenatal through the school years.
To recruit families, our AmeriCorps worker walked around the neighborhood with her babies seeking out other parents to invite. We asked young families we saw in grocery stores if they lived in the community and asked them to join. We partnered with doctors, dentists, the breastfeeding coalition, the family relief nursery, and early intervention.
At the showers, we celebrated with food and provided each parent a basket with baby gifts: nail clippers, boogie blubs, diapers, wipes, books, and front-pack baby carriers. We recruited local farmers to model wearing the baby carriers and reading to babies. We invited the families to an infant/toddler playgroup so we would have an ongoing connection through preschool into kindergarten.
We built new relationships with families long before kindergarten and helped families connect with resources. We also connected parents to each other, emphasizing their children would be together for the next 18 or so years.
This process helped us learn to ask questions like, ‘How do we get to know parents?’ ‘Who in the community might know and authentically engage with those families?’ ‘Where are the babies?’ and ‘What services are already being provided?’ We learned to focus on community and support and provide information in a non-judgemental, approachable way. We also learned to center the celebration, keeping the resource providers on the periphery.
The baby showers ended during COVID, but may start again in another form with a literacy focus and engaging older siblings and classmates to develop the baby baskets. Douglas County now also holds baby showers at the fairgrounds; they have far more resources and a greater reach.
Status of the Change Idea: Adapted, Adopted, or Abandoned?
Adapting
Additional Resources
The Perry Preschool Project and the Heckman Equation
The P-3 Framework – National P-3 Center
Reframing Our View About Our Families – Dr. Karen Mapp