Community Provider's Fair
Name of Coalition: Red Wing Early Childhood Initiative
MIF: Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation,
Project Overview: A Community Provider’s Fair was held. This concept behind this project was to provide a forum for providers of various services to children and families to meet, network, and share information. Providers were encouraged to bring display boards, and information to share. The Red Wing Public Library donated the space, bags and the set-up/clean-up. The advertisement was done via a mailing completed by a parent volunteer, via e-mail through a variety of the ECI member’s own contact lists, and phone calls. This event was not formally open to the public and therefore no mass media advertisement was done. This event was held for two hours over the lunch time. A light lunch that could be eaten while walking and talking was provided.
Cost of Project:
# of Children 0-5 Served: 0
# of Children 6-18 Served: 0
# of Adults Served: 194
# Families Served: 0
Lessons Learned/Outcomes: 44 community providers registered and displayed information. (When the project was initially discussed the working group thought we might have 15 providers!) The overall attendance at the event was 150 individuals representing medical, mental health, human services, education, community recreation, faith-based and legal services. An electronic survey was completed with about 1/3 of the attendee’s responding. On a scale of 1 (poor) to 4 (excellent) the overall response to this event was a 3.58. 86% of the respondents indicated it would be easier for them to make appropriate referrals based on the information they received at this event. 100% of respondents would like to see this event occur again.
Project Frequency: