Vamos Niños: Play to Learn, is a mobile museum and resource center that connects families to resources as they engage with their children in a fun-filled space designed for play, exploration and learning. We recognize that early childhood resources are not distributed equally, and that challenges such as limited public transportation and high poverty are barriers to access. The mobile museum travels throughout Doña Ana County, and is intended to bring access not only to the more populated regions, but particularly to underserved rural areas and colonias.
Vamos Niños is a part of the children’s museum project that came about as a result of Ngage New Mexico’s broader work in education and the Doña Ana County Early Childhood Education Coalition, part of the Success Partnership, a prenatal-career-initiative in Doña Ana County, and will utilize the broad relationships with our partners and community at large to create a space that embodies the uniqueness of southern New Mexico. Our children’s museum project has two phases: the first is Vamos Niños, our mobile unit. The second phase will be a brick and mortar museum, currently in development with the City of Las Cruces. The potential impact of the children’s museum is enormous, and our community is ready for it.
Keywords: preschool, school readiness, ECE
Ngage New Mexico (Ngage) is a nonprofit organization that excels in engaging community to make change happen. With a focus on improving education outcomes and nonprofit capacity-building, we embrace the values of collaboration, consensus-building, social justice, racial equity, and data-informed solutions for the betterment of our entire community. Our vision is no less than a diverse, vibrant, and resilient community where all enjoy freedom, opportunity, and the power to direct our own lives. Our mission is to serve as a catalyst to advance the well-being of all people of southern New Mexico.
Ngage serves as the primary support organization for a prenatal-to-career education initiative in Doña Ana County called the Success Partnership. The Success Partnership has two coalitions under its banner: the Early Childhood Coalition, and the Kinder-Career Coalition. For more information, go to www.successdac.org/
The Success Partnership utilizes Collective Impact as our framework for making change. We bring together representatives from all sectors to levarage resources and collaborate toward accomplishing mutual goals in transforming education outcomes in Doña Ana County. There is a backbone team that provides support for the Success Partnership by providing facilitation, coordination and guidance for the partnership.
Keywords: education systems change, collaboration, common goals, data informed decisions, mutually reinforcing activities
3880 Foothills Road, Suite A