In response to our November 2008 PAMP Parents' Club Partnerships survey, 190 of you let us know which local organization's services are of most interest to you and your families. You chose from a broad range of organizations we proposed and added some of your own suggestions to the mix. You were interested in a number of different types of organizations. For 2008-2009, we will focus on your first six choices. Your top two selections are focused on family education and fun: Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo and Hidden Villa. Choices three, five and six are organizations focused on providing parenting education, services and support: JFCS Parents Place, Children's Health Council, and Hand-in-Hand Parenting. Your fourth selection, KidPower, is focused on teaching "people safety" to children, teens and adults.
In November, we completed the new 2009 partnership agreement with Parents Place, your first choice for parenting education. The agreement was brokered by Aoife Maynard, Club Liaison and Parents Place volunteer, Karen Friedland-Brown of Parents Place and the Club Partnerships team. It's a terrific agreement that includes a number of new benefits for our community.
While we plan to focus on partnering opportunities with the first six organizations on the list, if we get more volunteers, we will pursue opportunities with other organizations of interest to you, including, in order of interest, Day One Center, Cubes and Crayons, Parents Helping Parents, Resource Area for Teachers (RAFT), Blossom Birth, and Abilities United (formerly CAR, Inc.).
If you have not yet volunteered, but are super passionate about one of the organizations on the list, please feel free to contact Wendy Shindler, for more information at partnerships@pampclub.org.
Partner News
last updated 4/20/09
SPRING UPDATES - Partnership Liaison, and Kids Activities VP, Michelle Hoffmann, hit the ground running, organizing events with your top picks -- Hidden Villa and the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo. In March, PAJMZ presented “Light Magic” where the kids investigated light – how it changes with color, refracts, reflects and bounces. The presenter gave each child a bit of 1-on-1 time to ensure the experiments were understood and everyone was impressed with how well these young children understood the concepts. In April, we had another PAJMZ event - “Zoo Animals” where the kids learned about several animal groups and got to meet animals from each of the groups. This month, (May), there will be another PAJMZ event - “Junior Geologist” and in June, the final event in the series - “Bug Buddies”.
SHEEP SHEARING DAY - Despite chilly March weather, Sheep Shearing Day at Hidden Villa was great fun! 300 members attended. Besides sheep shearing, we petted a baby lamb, saw wool spun into yarn - the old fashioned way, watched Border Collies herding sheep, made art with wool felt, fed chickens, held baby chicks and got pig kisses from the piglets. Judging from the feedback Michelle got, these events have been a big hit. Many thanks, as well, to Michelle's husband, Sean, for his hard work on Sheep Shearing Day!
ABILITIES UNITED - We're excited to offer some of our first programming for parents of children with a range of developmental challenges. Liaison, Leigh Metzler has been hard at work building our first partnership with Abilities United of Palo Alto. As a result, you may see some articles in the "Featured Partner" section of our Newsletter focusing on topics such as: “Assessing Preschools for All Learning Styles, Including Special Needs”, “Recognizing Delays and Special Needs” and “Speech and Language Development”. And of course, we continue to enjoy AU's generosity in welcoming the Club to use their venue for a number of our Club speaker events.
NEW PARTNERSHIPS - In March, we had our initial partnership meetings with Children's Health Council, Allison Chao, Liaison and with Hand in Hand Parenting, Teresa Kelleher Zepeda, Liaison. Also in March, we welcomed Rosanne Wong as our new Liaison for KidPower, Inc. The Club has already scheduled a fall event with KidPower,and I know Rosanne looks forward to further developing that relationship. I hope to have lots of details to share with you on these new partnerships-in-the-works in August.
If you didn't make it into an activity this time around, have no fear. The Leadership team is hard at work developing events of all types and sizes for the upcoming months. Some will be large and some, far more intimate -- depending on the partner's capacity and the sort of user experience they are hoping to achieve. And please, if you are unable to attend an event for which you signed up, remember to cancel, so someone on the wait-list can attend.
