Child Care Aware goes Vroom

Submitted photo VROOM: Lisa Couch, Child Care Aware of West Central Arkansas program coordinator, shared a Vroom resource package with First United Methodist Church Child Development Center LesLee Jones. National Park College's CCAWCA was one of 10 sites in the country chosen to be part of Child Care Aware of America's Vroom initiative.
Submitted photo VROOM: Lisa Couch, Child Care Aware of West Central Arkansas program coordinator, shared a Vroom resource package with First United Methodist Church Child Development Center LesLee Jones. National Park College's CCAWCA was one of 10 sites in the country chosen to be part of Child Care Aware of America's Vroom initiative.

National Park College's Child Care Aware of West Central Arkansas was selected as one of 10 sites in the United States to be a part of Child Care Aware of America's Vroom initiative.

The Vroom initiative, sponsored by the Bezos Family Foundation, helps parents across the country promote brain development in children birth to 5 years old. Vroom provides interactive tools and resources in both Spanish and English that highlight the science behind early brain development, showing parents how they can turn activities like bath time and meal time into opportunities that build their children's brains. The Daily Vroom app provides short activities that fit into a family's daily routine and is free to download.

"We're thrilled to see such a diverse mix of child care programs and providers integrating Vroom," said Jackie Bezos, president and co-founder of the Bezos Family Foundation.

"More than 11 million children under the age of five are in some form of child care. It's one of the most important decisions a parent can make. This partnership will help strengthen the relationship between child care providers and families by putting brain building language and tools at the center of both environments."

Selected sites will use Vroom to bolster their work with families to reach hundreds of thousands of parents with brain-building messages and nurturing parent-child interaction with new tools. Agencies adopting Vroom are located in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Montana, New Hampshire, New York and Ohio. Two agencies were selected in both New York and Ohio.

"We are honored to be chosen as one of 10 nationwide Vroom Brain Building Ambassadors to distribute resources to Arkansas child care providers and families," said CCAWCA Director Terri Helms.

CCAWCA will share Vroom resources with child care providers in its 10-county region, statewide Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, families and the community. More than 200 programs were mailed and delivered to encourage family engagement.

LesLee Jones, director of First United Methodist Church Child Development Center, said she sees a struggle with parental involvement.

"I think VROOM tools help bridge the gap for parents and help them realize engaging with their child is more simple than they think," Jones said.

School on 07/24/2016

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