Author: Brenda Cockerham
Planning Unit: Johnson County CES
Major Program: Nurturing Families (general)
Plan of Work: Acquiring basic Life skills in Family and Consumer Sciences
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
Each year, Johnson County Family and Consumer Sciences works with the Early Childcare Council to host an event called Parent Expo. This event is designed to support parents and caretakers with knowledge of how to assist preschoolers to become school ready. Out of 42 families who filled out the questionnaires, it was revealed as a result of the program, there was an increased understanding of the definition and checkpoint of what health and physical well-being means; there was an increased understanding of the components of social and emotional development, There was a 100 % increase of awareness of the components of language and communication development, there was an increased awareness of the way children approach learning, and a %14 percent increase of understanding of what general knowledge and mathematics looks like to a preschooler.
Sixty four percent of participants did not utilize childcare services, so reaching them with this vital information of what their children would be evaluated on was of utmost importance as was giving them tools to work with to help teach the children in their care.
The Early Childcare Advisory Council now has a facebook page to help communicate with the target audience, which Johnson County FCS utilizes to share pertinent information about programs and childcare tips, routinely. FCS also made sure that each of the 100 families who participated in the event were armed with a resource book filled with information designed to aid in the parent's/ caretakers' guidance and development of the children. This resource book was created by the FCS agent with assistance from state specialist Dr. Weisenhorn.
The Early Childcare Council received a grant that enabled our team to host the event and provide all parents and caretakers with hands on tools in a backpack for children to take home with them. Each component was selected for its relevance to aiding children in learning in each of the categories of testing. 300 families members attended the event with 30 agencies with supportive services participating.
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