June 15, 2007
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Stressful situations can happen anytime and anyplace, especially for parents in public. Though a person may feel like an uninvolved bystander, small steps and actions can help alleviate difficult circumstances. This message is at the core of the Wakanheza Project – a program initiated by Ramsey County at Minnesota Children’s Museum to strengthen and enhance the Museum’s staff interaction with children, youth and families in a peaceful and supportive way – which has once again received honors at Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) national conference.
The MetLife Foundation and ACM’s Promising Practice Replication Award honors innovative management and programming practices that support healthy kids, families and communities. A $10,000 grant accompanies the award to create a training program called “Supporting Parents in Public – Wakanheza: Keeping Children Safe by Lending a Hand to Parents During Difficult Situations,” that will be used nationwide by the Association of Children’s Museums. The Wakanheza initiative was first recognized in 2006 with a Promising Practice Award for the innovative practices benefiting children; the 2006 award made the Museum eligible among other past honorees for this year’s Replication Award.
Minnesota Children’s Museum received the Replication Award in recognition of its work in developing an effective training workshop for Museum staff and volunteers. Based on the workshop, Museum staff has made changes to Museum practices and procedures and improved on the Museum’s reputation as a family-friendly environment. The workshop and implementation techniques provided a model that the Wakanheza Project Partnership has utilized in other public settings. The Partnership, including the Museum, Ramsey County Department of Public Health, the Minnesota Department of Education and others introduced a school-based Wakanheza initiative in 2006.
“Our staff has really embraced this program,” said Jessica Turgeon, Visitor Services Manager at Minnesota Children’s Museum. “It not only helps us better understand the challenges facing parents, but also gives us simple but incredibly effective tools to use in tough situations. There is no longer that panic of, ‘What should I do? Should I do anything at all?’ when facing a stressed-out parent and child. Instead, we instantly begin thinking about how tough this is for the family and how we can help them.”
Wakanheza is the Dakota word for “child,” which translates to English as “Sacred Being”; the Wakanheza Project taps into critical power of language, suggesting that by speaking of children as Sacred Beings, there is a subtle but powerful impact on the way we treat them. The principles and practices of the project are founded on the belief that if our society were to reflect Wakanheza in our deeds and actions, our communities would be better places for families and children. These practices have been tried and tested and work to reduce parental stress and improve environments for families. The Wakanheza Project has been applied to our community in many public settings, including libraries, schools, congregations, community centers and medical clinics.
Donald Gault of Ramsey County commented, “Through our work with a number of community partners, including an incredible partnership with the Minnesota Children's Museum, we are seeing real, lasting change in our community and tangible evidence that our vision of peaceful, healthy families and communities can be realized in our lifetimes.”
Editor’s Note: For more information and photos, contact Samantha Moy at 651-225-6015 or smoy@mcm.org.
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