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MetLife
Foundation and Association of Children's Museums Promising
Practice Award
For the past eleven years,
ACM has received a grant from the MetLife Foundation to develop
the MetLife Foundation and Association of Children's Museums
Promising Practice Award. The award honors excellence and
provides recognition for innovative and creative practices
in U.S. children's museums; promotes management practices
which support alternative and creative programming; builds
a body of knowledge of exemplary programs and practices; and
establishes models for the advancement of the children's museum
field at large.
Read
Summaries of Promising Practice Award Entries, 1999-2009
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Download
The 10-Year Commemorative Promising Practice Publication |
Replicate
Award-winning Promising Practices Using these Toolkits |
Toolkits
& MetLife Foundation and Association of Children's Museums
Promising Practice Replication Award
In 2004, MetLife Foundation and ACM established
the Replication Award, a $10,000 restricted grant for
former Promising Practice Award recipients to create
an online "tool kit" and InterActivity training
session so that other children's museums may learn how to
create a similar, museum-tested, award-winning program in
their own communities.
Replicate
Award-winning Promising Practices Using these Toolkits |
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New!
Promising Practice: Provide children who lack
stable housing with a homebase for
play and creative experiences.

Young at Art Children's Museum's
online ArtREACH
toolkit provides information and suggested
strategies that childrens museums can use to mobilize
parents, homeless shelters, school districts and other
key community organizations to develop a programs and
programming for homeless children.
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COMING
IN SPRING 2010!
Promising Practice:
Bring museum learning to the outdoors to increase children's
outdoor play and familiarity with their local ecosystems.
Long Island Children's Museum
(Garden City, NY), is currently developing the online
Our Backyard toolkit, which will include information
on outdoor exhibit design and materials, educational
themes, activity and component suggestions, potential
sources of materials, horticulture and climate zone
information, resources for gardening and other support,
and ideas and lesson plans for educational programs.
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Promising
Practice: Create a youth program that benefits the museum
and teenagers.

Please Touch Museum
created Integrating Teens Into Your Museum Family,
a 111-page book and DVD that addresses partnerships,
recruiting, staffing, funding and programming to help
children's museums create youth programs that fit their
communities. Submit a Publications
Order Form to order a copy of this tool kit
(shipping costs apply).
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Promising
Practice: Build museum exhibits and enviroments based
on sustainable design.

Madison Children's Museum launched
GreenExhibits.org
to provide museum exhibit
designers and fabricators a resource for designing and
building exhibits and environments that best support
healthy spaces and a healthier future for kids and the
environment.
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Promising Practice:
Support families involved with the child welfare system.

Providence
Children's Museum's Families
Together online
toolkit was developed to help other childrens
museums learn how to serve parents and children separated
due to abuse or neglect. Program strategy, staffing
and budgetary templates and other resources complete
this online tool kit.
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Promising Practice:
Defuse stressful child/parent interactions in public
places.

Minnesota Children's Museum developed
museum staff training based on the Wakanheza principle.
The resulting toolkit, Supporting
Parents in Public includes
an Implementation Guide, Facilitators Guide, Power
Point presentation and project worksheets to train others.
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Universal
Design for Learning Award
VSA arts and ACM share a commitment
to inclusive and accessible learning through hands-on learning
experiences. Creating new opportunities is an ongoing challenge.
In an effort to advance knowledge and best practices, VSA
arts and ACM are pleased to present the inaugural year of
the Universal Design for
Learning Award. The award is an innovative collaboration
that will identify model programs in children's museums that
demonstrate learning standards for inclusive practice and
provide sub-awards and technical assistance to the selected
museums to refine and document their practices for dissemination.
Congratulations to the 2009
Universal Design for Learning Award Recipients!
Click
Here to view summaries
Universal Design for Learning
Award applicants (2005-2008).

Great Friend
to Kids Award
The Great Friend to Kids Award is
presented annually at the Association of Children's Museums'
InterActivity conference. The award honors those who have
made significant and outstanding contributions to strengthening
education and advancing the interests of children.
ACM presented
the 2009 Great Friend to Kids Award to Boys
and Girls Clubs of America for its longtime commitment
to help young people reach their full potential as productive,
caring citizens at its conference InterActivity 2009: Declare
Your Impact.
Past recipients
include Dr. Joe L. Frost, Ed.D., L.H.D; Dr. Bettye Caldwell,
Dr. Julius B. Richmond and Dr. Edward F. Zigler (2007) for
their roles as architects and early founders of the Head
Start program, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton (2006) Erikson Institute
(2005), Kevin Clash (2004), Barbara Pierce Bush (2003),
UNICEF (2002), Dr. David Elkind (2001), Dr. Robert Coles
(2000), Children's Television Workshop (1999), First Lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton (1998), Dr. James P. Comer (1997),Fred
Rogers (1996), Dr. Ernest L. Boyer (1995), Peggy Charren
(1994), Marian Wright Edelman (1993), Dr. Howard Gardner
(1992), and Michael Spock (1991).
Click
here for details on each of the Great Friend to Kids
Award recipients.
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