For a few months the MNC Mission Bay Campus has been diving into LIIF’s Connecting Children to Nature program, a professional development opportunity focused on bringing nature into the learning experience for children of all ages. Their latest session took them to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito, where the day began with a creative and thoughtful icebreaker, followed by an introduction to the CREATE Framework. This session focused on the "E” for exploratory and included a Nature Mash Up activity that encouraged reflection on how the activity could support children’s development. They also brainstormed open-ended prompts to spark curiosity, encourage questions, and help children come up with their own ideas. After exploring the museum, the team gathered again to reflect and plan, then shared how they are currently facilitating exploratory nature play, came up with ideas on something new to incorporate in their classroom that’s outside of their comfort zone, and discussed ways to support one another in the process. With each session, the Mission Bay team continues to grow as educators and deepen their commitment to making nature a meaningful and joyful part of children's everyday learning. Thank you to Jessica Contreras, Ricardo Ochoa, Vivian Lopez, Angelica Canchola, Adriana Lepe, Silvia Lopez, Doris Avila, and Barbara Walden for participating in this workshop. Check out this story and more in our most recent Issue of Informes: https://conta.cc/3FcvoJp (fb)

In April there were 22 recruitment efforts by our MNC Admissions & Family Services team. Eight were ongoing sites, ten were new events attended, and five were Individual Referrals made by our staff; phone call, walk- in and/or from existing partnerships. It was a very busy and productive month for us! We had staff tabling for the following community events: SOMACC Multicultural Festival, Cesar Chavez & Dolores Huerta Festival, SF Pregnancy Family Village Fair, Earth Day at Alemany Farm, Dia De Los Ninos, La Gran Fiesta by Buena Vista Horce Mann, MNC Community Fair at MNC Evans Campus, Marshall Elementary Native American Family Joy Night & a Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation event for residents near our Mission Bay Campus. Thank you to Natalie Aleman, Yaneth Urquijo, Vicente Cortez, Salvador Munoz, Frank Gonzalez, Efrain Sandoval, Mariana Romero, Yesenia Lemus, Marlene Hernandez & Andres Tobar. In addition, we've established New Partnerships with Good Samaritan, Mission Graduates and Carecen discussing ways to collaborate that would provide opportunities of exchanging services, doing onsite outreach and event participation, getting presentations of their services to our Family Services team, having Mission Graduates join our MNC Community fair and Kinder Fair, using Good Samaritan referral link to share with our families when interested in their classes or workshops, etc. Check out this story and more in our most recent Issue of Informes: https://conta.cc/3FcvoJp (fb)