Community Programs

Making Connections

KidZone Museum’s bilingual staff and our programs and learning experiences offer Tahoe-Truckee families opportunities for early childhood development, education, and parenting support. Our KidsReach initiative and social service partnerships increase our outreach to under-served families in our region. Families from our KidsReach Program visit the  museum to play and participate in our enrichment programs. During their visits, families learn about resources in our community and the stages of early childhood development.

Award-winning community programs

Our outreach program to under-served youth, KidsReach, received a Promising Practice Award from Association of Children’s Museum’s and MetLife for our innovative grassroots successful outreach efforts.

We are actively requesting donations for our KidsReach initiative to provide innovative experiences that can bridge the economic, cultural, and educational gaps our families experience. Our focus is to connect with families who are under-served, survivors of domestic violence, and those facing mental health challenges.

Staff Development

To better serve our community we attend conferences that update us on the best child development activities and exhibits for children. We have attended workshops at Lawrence Hall of Science, Exploratorium, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and the annual Children’s Museum Conference. We have toured the Boston Children’s Museum, Chicago Children’s Museum, Bay Area Discovery Museum and Brooklyn Children’s Museum and Please Touch Philadelphia Children’s Museum. We found out about the Imagination Playground, Mega tiles, the ball wall and lots of other interesting learning tools that we have installed in KidZone museum from these workshops. We enjoy sharing this knowledge with your families and strive for excellence.

Community Partners

We partner with many organizations in our community so we know how to meet the needs of local children and families. One of our partners, the Tahoe Truckee Community Collaborative, is where we meet twice a month and discuss local happenings and issues with over 40 organizations. Another organization we helped start is the North Tahoe Environmental Education Coalition (NTEEC). NTEEC has over 30 organizations that focus on science education and share resources and ideas to enhance science education for our regions children.

Together with our First 5 Placer County partners, we plan programs for young children living in Placer County and also share resources like event space and staff. We also participate in Community for Kids, formally the Child Abuse Prevention Council. The council produces the annual Kids Day, which was held behind the museum in 2013 and attended by hundreds of local families who were able to learn about local resources and information and enjoy kid friendly activities.

Through our partners we provide classes and programs in the Kings Beach Family Room, North Tahoe Family Resource Center, at the Boys and Girls Club and with various teachers in the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District (TTUSD). With the TTUSD Early Learning program, we partnered with the annual Child Development Conference and helped to support a session with national storyteller, Olga Loya. Storytelling is key to enhancing a child’s reading skills. As a partner in the Campaign for Grade Level Reading, finding a variety of ways to promote literacy is a goal of the museum.

Tahoe Safe Alliance, Early Head Start, Kings Beach Co-op Preschool and Sierra Teen Education and Parenting Program visit the museum for free whenever they can. Wherever there is a need for a child or family we do our best to fill in the gaps and join partners in support of their events whenever possible.