Vroom believes everyone has what it takes to be a brain builder. We agree.
Watch this video from Vroom for more about how their app works:
2 United Way volunteers brought Vroom to our attention. We thanked Jaki Ellis and Craig McEwen for their hard work by presenting them with Community Builder Awards at our 2016 Annual Meeting.
Jaki Ellis, the former State Director of Coordinated School Health Programs, now volunteers on the Statewide Coordinating Council for Public Health, the ACCESS Health Advisory Board, which she has Chaired, and our United Way’s Success By 6 Council.
Craig McEwen, Bowdoin College professor of Political Economy and Sociology emeritus, volunteers on the Boards of the Restorative Justice Institute and Tedford Housing, where he is now Chair. He’s also served on our United Way Board of Directors, Overview Committee,
Best Start Steering Committee and Best Start Initiative Team.
We knew Craig and Jaki were great volunteers, but in the last couple of years we saw them take it to a new level.
As we focused on providing children with the best start, Jaki and Craig volunteered to lead a team to help provide babies’ parents
with resources and information about healthy parenting.
Their effort went way beyond expectations. There’s a LOT of parenting information out there. But Craig and Jaki understood that we wouldn’t want to use just any resources: they needed to be based on sound research, easily delivered to and understood by parents with varying literacy levels of education, and oh, by the way, if they were free that would be very good!
They assembled a team of dedicated volunteers and began the search. They examined best practices from all around the country,
And learned more about how very hard-pressed many young parents are for time. We estimate they spent literally hundreds of hours on research.
In the end, they decided on Vroom, a free mobile app developed by the Bezos Foundation that is primarily used on smart phones,
the communication tool of choice for many young parents. It’s easy, fun to use, and is based on the latest brain development science.
(It provides daily tips for things you can do with your child, as part of your regular routine, and each tip also has
a sentence or two explaining how it promotes healthy brain development.)
Jaki and Craig set up a number of pilot sites to test Vroom, learned many good lessons, and have now led the effort to have Vroom become a regular tool of local professionals such as home visitors, children’s librarians, pediatricians, and social service agencies.
Many Mid Coast babies and parents will benefit from this work – (and – we may help spread it further afield with some statewide partners.) We are all very fortunate to have Craig and Jaki as exceptional volunteers, partners and leaders in our early childhood work,
and we are pleased to present you with United Way’s Community Builder Award!
Jaki Ellis, the former State Director of Coordinated School Health Programs, now volunteers on the Statewide Coordinating Council for Public Health, the ACCESS Health Advisory Board, which she has Chaired, and our United Way’s Success By 6 Council.
Craig McEwen, Bowdoin College professor of Political Economy and Sociology emeritus, volunteers on the Boards of the Restorative Justice Institute and Tedford Housing, where he is now Chair. He’s also served on our United Way Board of Directors, Overview Committee,
Best Start Steering Committee and Best Start Initiative Team.
We knew Craig and Jaki were great volunteers, but in the last couple of years we saw them take it to a new level.
As we focused on providing children with the best start, Jaki and Craig volunteered to lead a team to help provide babies’ parents
with resources and information about healthy parenting.
Their effort went way beyond expectations. There’s a LOT of parenting information out there. But Craig and Jaki understood that we wouldn’t want to use just any resources: they needed to be based on sound research, easily delivered to and understood by parents with varying literacy levels of education, and oh, by the way, if they were free that would be very good!
They assembled a team of dedicated volunteers and began the search. They examined best practices from all around the country,
And learned more about how very hard-pressed many young parents are for time. We estimate they spent literally hundreds of hours on research.
In the end, they decided on Vroom, a free mobile app developed by the Bezos Foundation that is primarily used on smart phones,
the communication tool of choice for many young parents. It’s easy, fun to use, and is based on the latest brain development science.
(It provides daily tips for things you can do with your child, as part of your regular routine, and each tip also has
a sentence or two explaining how it promotes healthy brain development.)
Jaki and Craig set up a number of pilot sites to test Vroom, learned many good lessons, and have now led the effort to have Vroom become a regular tool of local professionals such as home visitors, children’s librarians, pediatricians, and social service agencies.
Many Mid Coast babies and parents will benefit from this work – (and – we may help spread it further afield with some statewide partners.) We are all very fortunate to have Craig and Jaki as exceptional volunteers, partners and leaders in our early childhood work,
and we are pleased to present you with United Way’s Community Builder Award!
