Good to Grow!
About Good to Grow!

Good to Grow! is the children’s museums field’s response to the growing prevalence of childhood overweight and rise in related health issues. Building on a history of leadership on social issues affecting children, children’s museums have acted to counter this crisis by taking leadership in their communities to improve the health and wellness of families through programs, exhibits, partnerships and advocacy. The Good to Grow! initiative is managed by the Association of Children's Museums on behalf of its members.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Good to Grow! initiative

An important part of the overall initiative, the Good to Grow! Web site uniquely links the children’s museum experience, home life and the broader community with compelling messages, engaging activities and accurate resources for living healthy lives. Through Good to Grow!, children and families engage online and at children’s museums with these key concepts for healthful living:

  • Eating good foods;
  • Getting plenty of exercise;
  • Tracking screen time (computer and TV); and
  • Connecting with the outdoors.

The Museums section highlights and supports the work of ACM member museums. Our goal is to increase children’s museums’ capacity to become leaders in promoting and improving health and wellness in their communities. Many ACM members already are such leaders as the healthy happenings section so wonderfully illustrates. Together, we will strive to do more!

 

Frequently Asked Questions about the Good to Grow! initiative

Why are children’s museums promoting health?
Research shows that families are the most important factor in promoting children's health. Through formal surveys, ACM has found that families turn to children's museums for engaging activities, quality interactions and trustworthy information about child development and health.

How is Good to Grow! helping to address the childhood obesity epidemic?
ACM is developing several Good to Grow! programs and resources for children’s museums to use in their institution and community settings. Current offerings include the Growing Healthy Museums Program; Good to Grow! Web site and Kids Dig Dirt!.

Growing Healthy Museums Program
Funded through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Service in fall 2007, the program is designed to increase museums’ institutional capacity, knowledge and skills in order to become leaders in promoting health and wellness in their communities. The program has four activities.

  • Developing an institutional self-study and recognition program;
  • Publishing a Good to Grow! Healthy Museum best practices book;
  • Hosting a workshop on building healthy community partnerships and producing a toolkit based on conference content and outcomes; and
  • Measuring the effectiveness of providing these resources to museum professionals while providing tools for museums to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs and practices for museum audiences.

Good to Grow! Web site
Funded by Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, this site launched in fall 2007. The Web site links the children’s museum experience, home life and the broader community with compelling messages, engaging activities and accurate resources for living healthy lives. The site is geared for families with children ages 2-10 and the children’s museums that serve them. The site include four main areas:

  • Family Fun, where families can plant a virtual Good to Grow! tree and help their tree sprout colorful stickers as reward for answering health discovery questions.
  • Gallery, where families can see other virtual Good to Grow! trees, grouped by affiliated museum.
  • Grown-up Stuff, where adults can find tips and tools to support their family's good health and tap into a blog, the Parent Voices section, to share experiences, opinions and advice about raising a healthy family in our busy world.
  • Museums, where children’s museums can post how their museum is providing Healthy Happenings for their community and also to find ACM resources to help them create new Healthy Happenings.

Kids Dig Dirt!
Funded by Civil Society Institute, Kids Dig Dirt! is a project focused on the creation of outdoor environments where children can develop a lifelong connection to the natural world.

In 2007, ACM convened two meetings of experts who recognized the interdependence of health of planet and health of people, to find ways create outdoor environments and programs that promote children’s health, conservation and sustainable development. In 2008, a “Green Paper” from these meetings will be published and presented as a tool to help children’s museums and allied partners to gather resources and activate change. Additional Kids Dig Dirt! activities are under development.

What future programs and resources will Good to Grow! offer?
ACM anticipates commissioning permanent and traveling exhibits on health and wellness; facilitating new children’s museum programs and events related to healthy eating and active living and securing additional partnerships with national organizations that will provide with local opportunities for children’s museums.

What knowledge base informs Good to Grow!?

  • The Good to Grow! Advisory Board is a coalition of representatives from ACM member institutions with significant experience creating health-related exhibits and programs and experts from a broad range of organizations committed to protecting and advancing the health of children. Click here for a PDF listing current  members.
  • We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children's Activity & Nutrition) is a national public education outreach program collaboration of four Institutes of the National Institutes of Health: the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and National Cancer Institute (NCI).
  • The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.

Who is funding Good to Grow!?
The initiative has received funding from three organizations and is looking to develop additional funding partnerships.

  • Civil Society Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that serves as a catalyst for change by creating problem-solving interactions among people, and between communities, government and business that can help to improve society.
  • Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund is an independent public charity — was established in 1991 with the mission to further the American tradition of philanthropy by providing programs that make charitable giving simple and effective.
  • Institute for Museum and Library Services is an independent grant-making agency of the federal government that leads a national effort to create and sustain a nation of learners.

Good to Grow! Contact
To learn more about Good to Grow!, contact Eliza Katz, ACM Program Manager, Executive Office & Special Projects, at 202-898-1080 or ekatz@ChildrensMuseums.org.

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