As one of the first ambassadors in the cadre of Vroom Ambassadors for Child Care Aware® of America, the Office of Early Learning (OEL) continues to promote Vroom throughout the state of Florida. Vroom is such a unique resource for families that it is easy to connect Vroom to many other initiatives promoted by our agency and our partners. It has become routine to include links or references to Vroom in many of our projects and plans and to encourage the 30 early learning coalitions within the state to do so. Vroom is routinely referenced in the Family Engagement Plans for the early learning coalitions and included as a staple in presentations and events at conferences and events with partners.
What's Vroom?
Vroom provides interactive tools and resources that highlight the science behind early brain development, showing parents how they can turn everyday activities like bath time and meal time into opportunities that build their children’s brains. The Vroom Partnership at Child Care Aware® of America is made up of Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies who educate and provide Vroom resources to families, providers, and organizations in their communities so they too understand the importance of brain development during the first five years of life. Learn more about Vroom here.
How We Use Vroom
All of our CCR&R State Network, School Readiness Program and Voluntary Pre-kindergarten Program staff include Vroom and the science behind Vroom in presentations, as well as in guides, calendars for families, and learning resources for families and child care providers. OEL aligned Vroom tips to the new Florida Early Learning and Developmental Standards that were adopted in 2018. On OEL’s website, families can access the Florida Early Learning and Developmental Standards specific to their child’s age and find Vroom tips to use to practice each standard at home.
We include Vroom app information, baby tip cards and the Vroom bookmarks in the mail-outs we send to other organizations requesting materials from OEL.
Vroom is a wonderful resource for families and makes it easy for family members of all generations (Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Millennia) to use. Vroom is convenient to access from a mobile phone, computer or tablet. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and babysitters can use Vroom tips and feel that they are supporting their grandchild, sibling, cousin, niece or nephew in their learning. Because Vroom has tips that families can use when they are engaged in their everyday routines, parents love the tips to keep their child e
ngaged and entertained while waiting in a doctor’s office or riding on a bus or in a car. While bathing their baby or feeding them lunch, parents can use Vroom tips to build their child’s brain. OEL developed a Babysitters training for the local region of the Girl Scouts of America including the science behind Vroom and how to access Vroom tips. We have presented Vroom at classes for new parents and grandparents at hospitals and libraries and many of the early learning coalitions include Vroom in their community “Baby Showers”.
OEL partners with the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) on many initiatives. DCF is the agency that provides oversight for the licensing of child care centers and family child care homes in Florida. DCF has quarterly mail-outs to all licensed and registered child care providers across the state. OEL routinely sends Vroom materials twice a year to be included in the mail-outs (emails or hard copies) to 7,838 child care providers.
As our Vroom journey continues, it leads us into new areas and partnerships to reach more families in Florida, through partnering with local school districts that have prekindergarten programs, connecting with faith based programs for families and grandparents, and reaching out to additional health care providers. We hope that “each one, teach one” applies to spreading the news about Vroom to more families with young children. The “Vroom orange” and the “Florida orange” make a great pair!
