Author: Brenda Cockerham
Planning Unit: Johnson County CES
Major Program: Family Development General
Plan of Work: Improve Individual and Family Development
Outcome: Initial Outcome
Parent Expo is an event held annually by the Early Childcare Council on which the FCS agent serves. The objective of the group is to insure that preschoolers are as prepared as they can be in the 5 topics they are tested on before entering school: 1. Health and Physical Well Being 2. Social and Emotional Development 3. Language and Communication Development 4. Approaches to Learning 5. General Knowledge and Mathematics. The past two years we were unable to have the event due to covid. This year Johnson County Family and Consumer Sciences created a virtual event that featured local professionals in each of the topics that spoke about how to assist preschoolers learning these skills. Each separate video was united into one "virtual event" and posted onto the Early Childcare Facebook page, which unites more than 20 agencies and schools into one platform. Once viewed, the parent or caretaker, could do a quick Qualtrics review and receive $40 worth of preschool manipulatives that would continue to assist in their development. There were 17 posts made to two pages (Early Childcare Council and FCS), 1,337 viewed the video, 71 shared the information, 2,961 were reached, 14 liked and 14 made comments. Ultimately, 30 viewed the 30 minute video and 15 completed the Qualtrics online while 13 others completed a paper version. Collectively, they were able to score and average of 84% after responding to the qualtrics review and viewing the video. Historically, 100 families attend the event (which was around 300 face to face). The event was connected to the Family Health Fest where families could come and pick up the early childcare backpack and benefit from all the other booths as well. Over 90 attended the outside Health Fest event (getting blood pressure screening, cancer screenings, and learning about 15 activities relevant to the whole families health), in addition to the 2,961 who were reached virtually, the combined method of outreach successfully helped the council and the participants get closer to the goal of reaching the more than 1,000 preschoolers and their families throughout the county. These families are now better prepared and safely have received support for the future-even during the covid worldwide pandemic.
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