Community Projects

Keeping a Presence in the Community for All Children

The Partnership for Children participates in a wide variety of community fairs and events. We provide developmentally appropriate play and learning activities for young children, infants through preschoolers. These activities include painting, play dough, puzzles, books, soft blocks and toys, etc. Each event requires at least 4 adults to supervise and manage the activities. Event helpers can work directly with children by putting up paper on the painting easel, refilling paint cups, helping with noodle-beads and other activities.

Someone is also needed to give out program information and talk with parents. Our materials are provided in English and Spanish, so it is always helpful to have bilingual volunteers at our booth! The events we typically participate in are listed below. Please call the Partnership staff to volunteer for an event. Specific details about each event vary from year to year, so call to get more information. Helping with our event booths is fun, fun, fun!

Annual Events

• October: Pittsboro Street Fair (October 23, 2010)
• April: Easter Egg Hunt
  Week of the Young Child
  YMCA Healthy Kids Day
• May: Day of the Book
  Siler City Alive

Come join in the fun and help us keep a presence in the community and build awareness of the importance of early childhood education and quality child development for all children!

Chatham Natural Learning Initiative

In 2009, the Chatham County Partnership for Children launched the Chatham Natural Learning Initiative as part of our mission to “create a healthy and wholesome environment in which all young children can reach their greatest potential.” This project promotes the importance of the natural environment in the daily experience of all children and families through environmental design and dissemination of information. The short term outcome is to assist two local child care programs in designing play environments that will bring children in closer contact with nature. In 2009, Chatham Child Development Center in Siler City and Kids 1st Learning Center in Pittsboro were selected as Chatham’s first Natural Learning Initiative pilot sites.

In 2010, the Chatham Partnership for Children will select two more licensed child care centers to participate in a natural learning environment master design process. The master plan design involves a written plan with scale drawings and technical specifications for converting their existing playground into a natural learning environment. Each Natural Learning site will assemble a collaborative design team which will include parents, teachers and volunteers. This team will work with the Partnership and consultants from North Carolina State University’s School of Design’s Natural Learning Initiative to develop the site design ideas and support the implementation of the project. Ideas to improve each center’s outdoor learning environments will not only be innovative and imaginative, but also achievable. Each site is required to raise a match of $500 to help implement the design.