On Saturday, February 26, the Young Children’s Wellness Council (YCWC) hosted a parent expo and resource fair to provide parents with information to ensure their child’s success. There were close to 20 resource tables available for parents to peruse. Organizations included RCSD PreK, Foodlink, Baby Safe Sleep Coalition, HealthiKids Coalition, the Crisis Nursery, Whole Child Connection, Get Ready to GROW, RAPP, The Norman Howard School, Encompass, Fidelis, Rochester Regional Health, Mt. Hope Family Center, AmeriCorps, and many more.
ROC the Future Alliance was on hand with our PECAN co-chair, Maurice Haskins, to collect information from parents to help inform our Wildly Important Goal. Parents indicated the following needs: What my school needs – mental health support, tutoring, more involvement between parents and teachers, social emotional learning, more father input; What my neighborhood needs – securer parks, better maintenance, more protection; What my child needs – speech therapy, behavior health, more hands-on time; What my family needs – more time to spend together, consistent contact with children, teachers and counselors, after work availability meetings with teachers.
To date, over 600 parents have been engaged. We are now in Phase 2, where we will take a deeper dive and validate the information received from parents in Phase 1. The goal is to identify general themes from the information received through community forums and focus groups, which will in turn lead us to Phase 3, where the top 2 to 3 items will be explored for funding and implementation.
A special word of appreciation is extended to the following individuals for their commitments to the WIG:
Angel Alicea for his commitment to sharing the WIG with East High School families
Ashara Baker for her efforts in sharing the WIG with Charter Leaders
Tonia Burton for collaborating on survey results from area libraries
Maurice Haskins for supporting the WIG at the February 26th Parent-led YCWC Event