A Time of Change – and a New Strategic Plan

Spring is always a much-awaited time of growth and rebirth, perhaps more so this snowy year than ever before!  And the Children’s Museum is in the midst of our own period of evolution as we search for a dynamic new leader to follow the three-decade legacy of former director Janice O’Donnell and work with Board and staff to shape the Museum’s future.

That future is founded on the Museum’s new strategic plan, developed over the last year with input from Board, staff and volunteers and adopted this winter.  Our road map for the next three years, the plan outlines major goals and the strategies for achieving them, in addition to and in support of the work required to run the Museum on a daily basis:

• Ensure excellent visitor experiences – in our exhibits, environments, activities and facilities, and through interaction with staff and volunteers – that deliver on our mission to inspire and celebrate children’s learning through active play and exploration.
• Go beyond the Museum’s walls to reach underserved children and families, continuing and deepening our outreach to out-of-school time and early childhood programs, community centers and parks in urban neighborhoods, as well as through therapeutic visitation for at-risk families.
• Advance the Museum’s leadership role as a strong and visible advocate for children’s right to and need for self-directed free play.
• Ensure an active and engaged Board of Directors that reflects the community and furthers the Museum’s mission.
• Ensure a well-qualified, highly motivated and diverse staff to provide excellent programming and management.
• Ensure the Museum has the financial resources to accomplish its goals through diverse sources of income.
• Ensure the Museum’s successful future growth and that it continues to meet community needs.

While we have important work ahead of us to make sure the Museum remains a vital and growing community resource, the Museum is solid, fiscally strong and poised for positive change. We look forward to sharing the next phase of our journey with you – our members, donors, partners and friends – and welcome your ideas as we navigate the challenges and opportunities the future holds.

– Megan Fischer, Interim Executive Director

Video: The Benefits of Risk in Children’s Play

New from KaBOOM!, a fantastic video about the valuable role of risk in children’s play – featuring play experts including Museum director Janice O’Donnell and Dr. Elizabeth Lange, pediatrician and Museum Board member!

Risk is an important part of play – it teaches children how to fail and try again, test their limits and boundaries, become resilient and acquire coping skills. Yet kids are allowed fewer and fewer opportunities to experience risk.

These leaders in the movement to restore children's play join Janice and Beth to speak out on the subject:

• Tim Gill, former director of Play England and author of No Fear: Growing Up in a Risk-Averse Society 
• Darell Hammond, Founder and CEO of KaBOOM! 

An Interview with Jessica Holden Sherwood

Meet Jessica Holden Sherwood – a Museum member since 2004 who joined the Board of Directors in 2007 and became Board president in 2009.
How and why did you get involved with the Museum?
My children, now ages 6 and 8, went to the Museum for about a year before I ever did. My husband always returned raving about what a great place it was. I eventually learned it myself and checked the “interested in volunteering” box. I am a member of the Museum because it’s a great place to bring my children: an active, engrossing, commercial-free, educational great place. I am a supporter of the Museum because of its social services and its commitment to all children.

How has the Museum changed since you first became a member?
The obvious answer is the three new exhibits. Less obvious: small changes virtually every time we visit – under the admission desk, the window boxes of the ramp, toys on the floor with the blocks. Also, the environments are so rich, it can seem changed with each visit even if it isn't – you notice or focus someplace you never had before. Even less obvious: have successfully completed a $1.5 million capital campaign and we're deep in the black!

You’ve been part of the Museum’s long-range planning. What do you hope for its future?
That the Museum continues to serve families who can't afford to come, expands service to kids in Head Start and after-school programs and changes exhibits. That everyone in Rhode Island respects the Museum as a resource and advocate for children's well being.

How do you spend your time when you’re not busy with your Board duties?
Work as a sociologist, for URI and for Sociologists for Women in Society, an international association of a thousand feminist sociologists.

As a sociologist, what’s your perspective on the Museum’s work?
I am sensitive to the many ways in which inequalities get reproduced – or sometimes interrupted. I'm really pleased that the Museum is an "interrupter" rather than a "reproducer." On class, the Museum is available to poor and near-poor families, not just those who can afford the admission fee. On race: 1) the Museum teaches about our history of immigration, and 2) it's one of the few places that kids from all different backgrounds and neighborhoods mix it up together. On gender, the Museum is a welcome respite from the sexism that infuses way too much of children's recreation and even their education.

What about the work around play?
I think that American parents are typically anxious these days, about their children's futures. Let's not dismiss this as a sort of group neurosis. It makes perfect sense, given the socioeconomic insecurity that Americans confront. With fewer social supports than most other developed countries, in America much more (e.g. health care dependent on current job) is riding on individual achievement. The stakes are high.

So, parents feel they are serving their kids' best interest by scheduling almost all of their time. In disadvantaged neighborhoods, this can be to keep kids safe from threats. In affluent neighborhoods, this can be – consciously or unconsciously – the start of a lifetime of resumé-building, to get into a good college, in order to have a successful adulthood.

The message of the American Academy of Pediatrics and of the Museum is that unscheduled time serves the kids' interest, too. The Museum is helping play to get the respect it deserves! This message is healthy for both children and adults.

What is your kids’ favorite exhibit and why?
I don't think my kids have a favorite exhibit, although when they were younger it was Water Ways. Like I said, we find ourselves focusing on different places on different visits. This works best, of course, when I follow rather than try to lead – I stop myself from directing them. One day Abigail spent almost an hour sitting at the table of interlocking plastic shapes, working diligently until she had made a … dodecahedron, I think.

What’s yours?
I don't have a favorite exhibit, I have a favorite element: grown-up seating in each exhibit. Sometimes – especially in the most exhausted years of early parenthood – I just want to sit there and do nothing, comfortable knowing that the children don't need vigilant supervision while they're in the Museum.

I like how the Museum welcomes grown-up involvement in kids' play but doesn't require it. I was at a children's museum once where a sign instructed parents to put away their cell phones and play with their children. I understand the motivation for that message, but at the same time, I appreciate that Providence Children's Museum is also a guilt-free zone.

***

Thanks, Jessica! What do YOU think about Jessica's sociological perspective? About growing parental anxiety and overscheduling?

A Year of Growth

Last night Museum Board members, staff and volunteers celebrated the tremendous accomplishments of 2009 at our annual meeting. It's always exciting to look back at what we've done in a year but last night made us especially proud because we responded to a time of great uncertainty with creativity and innovation, which allowed us to welcome a record number of visitors, expand our reach in the community, and further our advocacy about the importance of children's unstructured play.

Take a look at some of last year's highlights, in words and photos:

Click here to download our 2009 Annual Report and get the full story on last year's accomplishments.

Many Hats

This post was contributed by Museum Board president Jessica Holden Sherwood.

My children went to Providence Children’s Museum for about a year before I ever did, which might sound odd coming from the president of the board of directors.

But back when I was Mommy to a 3-year-old and 1-year-old, their outings – with Dad or another relative – to the Children’s Museum were a blissful “staycation” at home for me. My husband always returned raving about what a great place it was. I eventually learned it myself, and checked the “interested in volunteering” box when renewing our membership.

Nowadays when I visit the Museum, it is with two proverbial hats.

I am a member of the Museum because it’s a great place to bring my two energetic children: an active, engrossing, commercial-free, educational great place. We virtually never spend an entire day at home. (This might reflect more on the parents than the children, but I digress.) On a foul-weather day, the Museum is the best of all possible destinations – most other options involve spending lots of money, often including on video games and junk food. Of course, the Museum is a great destination in any weather. As a member, I look forward to sitting in the sunshine this summer while my children explore the new exhibits in the Children’s Garden.
On the other hat, I am a supporter of the Museum through donations and service on the board of directors. If the Museum were just a great family destination, this wouldn’t be so – I’m not a supporter of FantasyLand or United Skates of America, though we’ve been known to visit.

I support the Museum because of its social services and its commitment to all children. These are not always visible to visitors.

• Did you know that of every 100 visitors, about 35 are there at no charge? All families who receive RIte Care (low-income health care) or have children participating in the Museum's Head Start program receive admission to the Museum.
• Did you know that Meeting Street brings its students, with disabilities of various kinds, to the Museum regularly? They can play and explore, practicing social interactions and fine and gross motor skills – just like all Museum visitors do.
• Did you know that social workers at the Museum supervise visits between children in foster care and their separated parents? (See this post from one staffer.) Visits like these sometimes take place in government offices, or in fast-food restaurants, or at the Museum! That makes an enormous difference to both the children and the parents. This program received an award Innovations in American Government Award and has become a national model.

My kids, now ages 7 and 5, have joined me in supporting the Museum, holding an occasional lemonade stand with all proceeds going toward the Play Works capital campaign. Our whole family will feel proud at the grand opening of those two new exhibits. I hope to see you there!