Supporting Fathers in Our Community

 

A message from UW-Madison Extension

Greetings Community Partners!

You are receiving this email because your organization serves families in our communities. We recently conducted a needs assessment on fathers in Wisconsin. We are now gathering information on how we can best use our findings to support fathers. Please consider filling out this short survey.

At the UW-Madison Extension, we are committed to better serving fathers. We know the importance of fathers for child development and family well-being. And yet, fathers are underserved by many family-serving organizations and service providers. Our assessment shines a light on what fathers in Wisconsin need and where they experience gaps in services. 

The recommendations provided in the short executive summary (attached) can inform adaptations in current services and creation of new programs.

We learned that:

·       Fathers want to be fathers and actively involved in nurturing care.

·       Fathers face many challenges, including access to programs and services, systemic barriers around gender norms, and meeting basic needs such as employment and housing. 

·       Meeting the needs of fathers' results in benefits for the whole family.

 

We invite you to learn more about the report's findings and how this information can inform and improve your work, strengthen your service with families, and how we can support you to engage fathers.  

As you read the report,  think about how this relates to your agency programs and families. You can access the methods, findings and recommendations in the full report found here.

Share your interest and learn more about how we can support you to engage fathers by completing this brief survey.

 

Thank you for your time,

Luisa Gerasimo (she/her)

Human Development and Relationship Educator

Extension Dunn County 

University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension

3001 US Highway 12 East; Suite 216

Menomonie, WI 54751

Extension Office: 715-232-1636

Wisconsin Relay: 7-1-1

 

Visit https://parenting.extension.wisc.edu/ for Family Engagement and Relationship programming in Wisconsin

Visit https://dunn.extension.wisc.edu/resources-for-family-leaders/ for Extension links that can help families

Bitty Book Club

Bitty Book Club, a program for caregivers and their children between the ages of 2-5, is a collaboration between the Family Resource Center, Progressive Beginnings, and the Mead Public Library in Sheboygan, WI.  The monthly family engagement program brings Parent Educators, Physical Therapists, Librarians, and families together to encourage a child’s motor, language, and social development.

Bitty Book Club is run similarly to a storytime, in that it features a book, music, and developmentally appropriate activities that support school readiness skills with a focus on relationship building.  What makes it unique, is that each family is given a copy of the same book, which is read together as a group.  There is also a stronger focus on socialization and free play than a traditional storytime program, as the read aloud is only a small portion of the time spent together. Additionally, trained Parent Educators and Physical Therapists are present to point out child development milestones to watch for, and answer any questions that parents have. 

The program runs for 1 hour, twice monthly, on a Tuesday morning and afternoon.  The first 15 minutes of the program are an opportunity for children and their caregivers to get comfortable in the space while listening to music and sharing toys like magnatiles, magnet letters, a balance beam, and a variety of table top activities that encourage matching and/or sorting.   Next, a Parent Educator or Librarian reads the story aloud, prompting choral reading moments, movement, or encouraging caregivers to point out details in illustrations.  The idea is to model the way a book can be extended by reading more than just the words on the page.  The book may be followed up with a related finger play, rhyme, or song.  During the last 30 minutes of the program, families are invited to explore additional activities that are inspired by the book- which could range from a movement path, sensory bins, process art activities, or a selection of carefully curated toys and manipulatives.

The Family Resource Center and Progressive Beginnings provide several staff members who plan activities, bring toys, manipulatives, and craft supplies.  The Library provides the space, purchases copies of the book, and supplements any craft materials that may be needed.  Staff from all organizations collaborate on book selections that can both be used to support developmental milestones, the interest of participants (as collected through surveys), and are available within budget.  All organizations involved help with marketing the program.  An average total of 4 staff members facilitate the program, with a growing average of 40 people in attendance per session.  Pre-registration for families is not required, and books are available on a first come, first served basis.    

The program continues to attract new families each month.  Caregivers are learning new ways to read books with their children. “This program is a great way for me to learn how to do more than just read the book with my child.” said one participant.  Caregivers shared that because of this program, they plan to do things like singing songs with books, asking questions about the illustrations, and replicate some of the fine motor activities from the sessions.  For staff, it is an opportunity to build community, collaborate with and learn from other professionals, and to cross promote services of all organizations involved.  

If you have questions about Bitty Book Club you can reach out to: Alison Loewen, Librarian, Mead Public Library alison.loewen@meadpl.org ; Darlyn Summers, Parent Educator, Family Resource Center dsummers@frc-sc.org; Jessica Oakland, PT DPT, Progressive Beginnings jessicapt@progbeg.com 

Free ALSC Resources for Youth Librarians

ALA's  Association for Library Services to Children has so many great resources and toolkits available to help you do your job more effectively.

A recent ALSC blog post has a great listing that centers around doing year-round advocacy. 

Browse through the amazing resources here in this linky post. [Planning a Year of Advocacy: Month by Month. White, Kimberly.  ALSC blog. January 26, 2023.]

Taking a Page from Ohio's Whole Child Framework

A recent ALSC blog post by Maria Trivisonno shared information on Ohio's efforts to consider the whole child when working with children and families.  Adopted by the Ohio Department of Education, the Whole Child Framework centers all of a child's needs.

Maria explores what that can look like in libraries. What does it look like in yours?

Read the post here. [Serving the Whole Child. Trivisonno, Maria. ASLC blog. July 19, 2022]

WI Parents Conference

 

Leah Langby, Youth Services Consultant at IFLS shared this important information from her networks in the IFLS Keeping Up with Kids blog. 

This free, virtual conference sponsored by University of WI Extension Services is for WI parents. She writes: "I got a note from the fabulous Yia Lor (UW Madison Extension–Eau Claire County) asking for help promoting a really awesome-sounding, free, virtual conference for parents, Raising Wisconsin’s Children.  It is designed for parents and caregivers, and as such is not developed for continuing education credit for professionals."

Stop here to read the full blog post with suggested language you can use to share with your families in promoting this conference to parents in your community!

Citizen Science Passive Program: Great Backyard Bird Count

If you're looking for a passive program or STEM activity, the Great Backyard Bird Count runs Feb.15-18, 2019. There are beautiful posters already created, you can print lists of the birds in your area code and the site also lists birding apps that can be used for identification purposes. This is a super citizen science activity for out of school learning, homeschoolers, and families to engage in together. Adults may love it, too.

Free Webinars on Supporting Immigrant/Refuge Families

The National Center for Families Learning has scheduled two free webinars (September 28 and September 29) entitled: Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families.

The first webinar with Margie McHugh:

Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families, Part 1 (webinar)

Thursday, September 28, 2017, 1:00 PM CDT

Join NCFL and Margie McHugh with the Migration Policy Institute for a discussion of what you can do to help families at your organization. Ms. McHugh’s work focuses on education quality and access issues for immigrants and their children from early childhood through K-12 and adult, post-secondary, and workforce skills programs.

The second webinar is with Judy Mortrude:

Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families, Part 2 (webinar)
Friday, September 29, 2017, 1:00 PM CDT
Join NCFL and Judy Mortrude with the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) to increase your awareness of the national data and policy conversation; learn how to advocate for a spectrum of issues impacting immigrant/refugee families; learn how to better support families at risk in our current environment; discover ways to use federal and state laws/funds to the greatest impact; and find out how to promote family literacy’s role in two-generation solutions.

 For more information and registration links, stop here

Ideabook: Libraries for Families

Recently, PLA and the Global Family Research Project released a handy new publication called Ideabook: Libraries For Families.  According to the Global Family Research Project the Ideabook "offers a research-based framework to guide libraries’ work in family engagement and shares 54 profiles of the innovative ways that libraries – big and small – support families in promoting children’s learning and development. The book also includes recommendations from library leaders on how to adapt and transform practices in local settings."  The case studies focus on the five "Rs" of engagement (reach out, raise up, reinforce, relate, and re-imagine) and how they are being applied in libraries.

Explore the original Call to Action document and the Ideabook HERE. Note: When you download the free documents, you will be asked for basic demographic information.

It's A Family Thing

  

Engaging families in our youth library work can make a real difference. PLA and the Global Family Research Project teamed up to explore family engagement in children's learning through libraries. They recently produced a report and an idea book with examples from libraries of all sizes on ways libraries can empower and engage families.

You can read about the report and download it and the the Ideabook as PDFs here.

Manitowoc's 1000 Books Before Kindergarten Event

Submitted by Susie Menk, Youth Librarian at Manitowoc Public Library

In August, Manitowoc Public Library hosted a 1000 Books Before Kindergarten Event.  We wanted to do a graduation party but decided that might limit participation.  We decided to just do an event to celebrate 1000 Books before Kindergarten—for those who have already completed it, for those who are in the middle of the program and for those who have never heard of it.

We planned several stations based on the five early literacy skills—reading, writing, singing, playing and talking.  We started out the event by gathering everyone into our normal storytime setting and doing a read aloud book.  The book was read twice, once just a read through, the second time a dialogic reading.  

It was fairly obvious to parents, which type of reading engaged their child more, which lead into a brief (VERY SHORT) discussion of the five early literacy skills.  We encouraged parents to do the stations WITH their child and as you can see in the photos, they did!!!

Many of the ideas we used can be found on the Manitowoc Public Library Pinterest page. 

We did Song sticks, upper and lowercase matching games with plastic eggs, color matching with clothespins, flannels, nursery rhyme games, a puppet theater, dress up clothes, letter matching with pool noodles pieces, magnets on a board, writing and drawing on a white board, flannels, shape matching and creative play with Legos™.  Most of these materials are things we keep on hand or were cheap and easy to make. 

It was a great success.  The best part is we kept the activity pieces and parts and now have them to use in storytimes!

PLA and Harvard Family Research Center Team Up to Promote Family Engagement

The Public Library Association has teamed up with the Harvard Family Research Project to provide libraries with resources and tools to help improve family engagement in library programs.  The Harvard Family Research Project has a lot of terrific resources for people looking for information on brain and child development, and it is really great that they are working with libraries!

The report is available here.  It has lots of great information and ideas, including 5 succinct ways for libraries to improve the involvement of families in their children's learning, with examples from the field.  I have included the 5 Rs below, but look to the report for more information and inspiration!

• Reach Out: Libraries reach out to families to promote the programs, collections, and services that are vital in a knowledge economy. 
• Raise Up: Libraries elevate family views and voices in how library programs and services are developed and carried out. 
• Reinforce: Libraries provide guidance on and modeling of the specific actions that family members can take to support learning, reaffirming families’ important roles and strengthening feelings of efficacy. 
• Relate: Libraries offer opportunities for families to build peer-to-peer relationships, social networks, and parent-child relationships. 
• Reimagine: Libraries are expanding their community partnerships; combining resources and extending their range; improving children and families’ well-being; and linking new learning opportunities.

(From the Keeping Up With Kids: IFLS Youth Services blog.)

Ideas and Free Literacy Kits

I'm always on the lookout for great ideas to implement at my library. Recently, I was reminded of a free resource called Curious City DPW. The folks at Curious City produce free KidLit programming guides, hold giveaways, produce a podcast, have a Facebook page, and have a mission to connect kids of all ages and literature.

Some highlights include a Quick, Little Monkey storytime kit, book club kits, community service project ideas, and more. It's worth exploring to see what you can glean and put to use whether you are serving the very young, school-agers, or teens and tweens.

Free Media Mentor Webinar for Tuesday, July 21

Association of Library Services to Children (ALSC) has an upcoming webinar that is free and open to anyone to attend. Learn more about media mentorship in public libraries from Amy Koester, Youth & Family Program Coordinator, Skokie (IL) Public Library. To read more about the it or to register visit http://www.ala.org/alsc/media-mentorship-libraries-serving-youth-primer

Early Literacy and Family Engagement Workshop on April 9

Early Literacy and Family Engagement:  Creating Opportunities for Life-Long Fun and Learning with Lilly Irvin-Vitela (Wisconsin Head Start Association)

Thursday, April 9, 9:30-3:30  (lunch is on your own), Menomonie Public Library, 600 Wolske Bay Rd., Menomonie, WI

Register by April 6, Please invite community partners.

Early literacy is based first and foremost in relationships.  Children’s potential greatly increases when we support family engagement and children and families engage in daily activities that nurture literacy.  You'll leave this workshop with an action plan for how to strengthen family engagement in your library or organization.  

Lilly Irvin-Vitela is the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Head Start Association, WHSA.  Lilly has significant professional experience in mobilizing communities, family engagement, conflict resolution, promoting cultural competence, and strategic planning.  She’s also a terrific presenter!

This workshop is funded with a Library Services and Technology grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Presented by the Indianhead Federated Library System.