Inclusion & Diversity for Our Community
At the core of Habitot's mission is to bring community together -- families from all walks of life experience the same joys, rewards and challenges in raising young children. All families can support each other and share ideas -- if they have a setting in which to connect.
Habitot has a commitment to inclusion and diversity, and
has established programs that reach out to and benefit a wide
range of audiences.
diversity statement
More than 10% of our audience visits for free through our
Family and Community Partnerships Program each year including
1,200 low-income children are served in regular off-site programs.
Families served through the program are exclusively low or
very low income. Almost all are families of color and come
from Berkeley, Richmond, Oakland, or San Francisco. These
families participate in museum programs through children's
class scholarships, subsidized family memberships, free preschool
field trips, organizational passes, or multicultural free
admission days. Teen parents, caregivers and special needs
families are served through on-going programs. For field trips
and classes, Habitot provides assistance towards transportation
expense.
Preschool Group
& Field Trips
Over 100 preschools visit Habitot on field trips each year. More than 65% of them are free visits from Head Start schools or state-supported programs; all other group visits receive discounted admission. Habitot also welcomes group visits from hospital-based programs, libraries, churches, recreation programs, prison mom groups, First 5 Centers, and many social service agencies. Transportation reimbursement assistance is provided to these groups with grant funding. Additional services to preschools include special classes, preschool teacher training, school-site art classes, and school-site parenting classes. group_visits
Family Outreach
Low-income and special needs families are eligible for subsidized
annual memberships and class scholarships for all classes
and camps. Habitot awards move than 100 subsidized memberships
annually, and participates in the Berkeley Holiday Fund distribution
of assistance checks among other ways we recruit eligible
families. More than 300 children's classes were subsidized
for low-income children last year, and all parenting workshops
are offered on a sliding scale fee structure. 75% of enrollees
take advantage of some discount for parenting workshops. Habitot's
parenting workshops qualify for court-appointed classes.
family outreach
Free Admission
Days
More than 9% of our audience, over 7,000 people, visited
Habitot on a free admission day last year. Each celebrates
day a multicultural theme like 'Cinco de Mayo', 'Mooncake
Festival', 'Day of the Dead', 'Norouz' (Persian New Year),
'Black History Month' that helps attracts a diverse audience.
Events feature music (often live), food, dance, art and performance
to celebrate the cultural traditions of the ethnic group or
nationality. The events are advertised in diverse communities. free admission days
Community Connections
Community Connections is our volunteer advisory group of diverse community members, visitors, and supporters who collaborate with Habitot staff to develop culturally relevant and inclusive museum programs and events that provide meaningful hands-on learning opportunities for all children and their families.
Community Connections
members help:
- Create a welcoming and inclusive community at Habitot
- Collaborate with Habitot staff in developing programs
that are culturally and socially relevant and which reflect
the diversity of the museum's audience.
- Support Habitot's efforts to deepen and sustain existing
community partnerships
- Introduce Habitot to new relationships in underserved communities whose children and families would benefit from our programs
- Generate resources and support for the museum from diverse audiences
The time commitment
involved includes:
- Atendance at one informal orientation meeting in May or June to learn more about joining Community Connections
- Attendance 2 group meetings: one in September to discuss strategic program initiatives for the coming year and one in January to kick-off the year of programming, celebrate accomplishments, and socialize with Community Connections members
- Participation in 1-3 subcommittee meetings a year to advise staff on a particular program or event of your choice (for example, Black History Month, Lunar New Year, Day of the Dead)
- Attendance at at least one program or event to cultivate new Community Connections members
For more information or to join Community Connections, contact
familyoutreach@habitot.org
Family and Community
Partnerships
Since opening in 1998, our Family and Community Partnerships
Program has partnered with hundreds of social service agencies,
teen parent programs, library literacy programs, homeless
shelters, Head Start schools, clinics and hospitals, and many
other organizations to ensure that low-income and at-risk
children and families have access to the museum's rich learning
environment. In addition to free group visits for hospital-based
programs, special needs groups, teen parents and others, Habitot
provides permanent agency passes giving free admission to
clients to dozens of agencies. To inquire about an agency
pass, please contact familyoutreach@habitot.org
Art Reach
Habitot's art programs in the community are known as "Art
Reach" and a dozen low-income preschools, First 5 centers,
and school districts, from Concord to Hayward, have benefited
from Habitot's off- site programs. The 'Art Reach' program
was awarded a federal IMLS grant in 2004. An "Art Reach" implementation
program adopts a school or agency for a year, and implements
a nine-month program of weekly arts instruction for preschoolers,
teacher training, family art nights, parent volunteer training,
and a year-end art show. Programs are funded though school
improvement monies or district funds, or grants. For information
about an "Art Reach" implementation program, please contact
hcmprog@lmi.net.
art reach (Teach Reach &
Art Reach)
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