Event(s) Summary
Number of Events Organized During Brain Awareness Week:
1
Year:
2021
Type of Events Held:
- Other
- Other: At-home activities that promoted brain awareness
Target Audiences:
- General Public
- Other
- Other: Under-served parents and their pre-K children
Approximate Number of People Reached:
300
Details of Major Brain Awareness Week Events/Activities:
The Child Health Investment Partnership of Roanoke Valley (CHIP; https://chiprv.org/) is an early childhood home visiting program that works with socioeconomically disadvantaged and under-served populations in our region, helping them access much needed medical services and providing developmental education, kindergarten preparation and regular child assessment and monitoring. This project supported Brain Awareness activities during the months of January-May 2021, focusing on the senses of hearing, balance, sight, touch, smell, and taste. Lesson plans and materials for at-home experiments were sent to our families, accompanied with step-by-step instructions, relevant books, and online links to informational videos. Since many of our families use English as a second language, we also translated our lesson plans and included links to online videos in Spanish. This proposal aimed to 1) Improve neuroscience literacy for under-privileged children and their families; and 2) Improve understanding of sensory development milestones and measures to improve brain health for parents and their children. This project was very effective, and enjoyed by our families. Due to COVID-related restrictions on in-home access, this project was done by children and their parents at their home, with guidance from written and online resources developed through this proposal. Case managers assigned to each family facilitated the implementation and engagement with the activities. An online pre- and post-survey was sent to the families, to assess their knowledge of neuroscience, and engagement with STEAM activities with their children.
Event Planning & Publicity
Publicity Methods Used:
- Other
Other Publicity Methods:
Direct phone calls, at-home visits, events involving our families
Which of These Publicity Methods Was The Most Successful?
Resources
What downloadable materials from the Foundation did you use for your events?
- Successful Aging & Your Brain Booklet
What other downloadable materials would you like the Foundation to provide?
- New Fact Sheets
- New Lesson Plans
- Activities/Experiments
Which BAW graphic materials did you use in publicizing your events?
- Brain Awareness Week Logos
Feedback & Keys to Success
How do you feel BAW participation benefited your organization and the local community?
This project was a unique collaboration between VTCSOM and a charity that focuses on the health and education of children (CHIP). The families that are enrolled in CHIP are all under-served, and often do not have equitable educational support or opportunities to advance their understanding of how their bodies work and how to improve their health. It also provided preliminary data to support future research manuscripts and grant efforts related to CHIP’s at home STEAM program.
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