Building Bridges

“Every Play With Me class that we have, I always have an “Ahh!” moment, and I know I’m not the only one because I see the other parents doing it too…I learn something new every single class.” 

- Geraldine, Play With Me Mom 

The UT Dallas Center for Children and Families (CCF) is asking YOU to support the growth and development of children from families all over the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex! Our mission is to use empirically-driven and community-based practices to cultivate a positive parent-child relationship and provide a solid foundation for children and families to learn and grow.

What is Play with Me?

Play With Me (Juega Conmigo) is a community outreach program facilitated by CCF for at-risk children (ages 0-3) and their parents. It serves DFW families by using developmental science to provide parents with the research-based tools to build bridges with their children and community. These bridges create the foundation for children to grow, develop and gain the confidence that they need to explore the world around them. Play With Me uses semi-structured activities to foster strong parent-child relationships and support children’s socio-emotional, physical, language and cognitive development.

How can YOU make an impact?

The Play With Me program is offered for free to high-need families, over 80% of whom come from low-income households. We are asking for your help in keeping this program thriving for the more than 300 children and parents our program serves each year. With your support, we will be able to strengthen the outreach services we can provide, including the provision of personalized packages for families to meet their needs.

One way that we have supported children and families in our community is by helping them to transition during big changes in their life. This semester, we created a Big Sister Bag for one of our Play With Me moms, Geraldine, and her daughter, Luna, who had recently become a big sister and was struggling to adjust to her new role. Our Big Sister bag contained items to foster her changing relationship with her mom and her new sister, including bubbles for family fun, baby wipes to help mom and dad with diaper changes, a bonding time item for parents to give their older child undivided attention for a few minutes every day and handouts with strategies to help new siblings adjust to the arrival of a baby. These materials helped Luna appreciate her new role as older sibling and role model.

Here are a few other ways that your donation could be used to support Play With Me families:

With a donation of $5, we can purchase a children’s book to promote literacy skills and encourage families to use reciprocal conversations surrounding storybooks to support their child’s cognitive development.

With a donation of $20, we can purchase a pretend-play set, which will encourage children to use their imaginative thinking and promote their social development.

With a donation of $50, we can purchase four parent-child support bags with materials used to support the families’ individual needs.

With a donation of $100, we can purchase six floor cushions and 20 XL rainbow floor mat tiles to create a safe and comfortable environment for children and parents to play, interact, and foster a positive parent-child relationship.

Who are we?

This campaign is supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) students at The University of Texas at Dallas. We are participating in a yearlong paid internship that provides historically underrepresented college students from UT Dallas and DFW community colleges with the tools to connect high-quality developmental science research with community-based outreach program through CCF’s Play With Me program. We have seen and felt the impact we can have on families.