Esperanza Acosta Moreno Library - El Paso Public Libraries

During 2025, we hosted two separate series of 5-week workshops, during the late winter and early fall seasons, on Thursday mornings at 10 am after pre-registering attendees via social media promotion; the workshops were very much a success in both instances with enthusiastic and consistent participation, more or less, although by the last workshop session participation would tend to taper off due to various factors. The average attendance per session would amount to about 30 participants. Although most often the children would be brought in by one primary caregiver, who would usually be the mother or occasionally another relative such as a grandparent, we also had quite a few parents who would regularly come in pairs with their children to play and interact with them which was quite fulfilling to witness.

Feedback responses from the parent/child post-workshop surveys were generally very positive and reinforced the objectives and work behind planning and conducting these workshops; parents indicated that they felt informed about their children's development and found the resource professionals to be helpful. The dramatic play, musical instruments and toys for babies were among the more popular stations with one parent stating that she made it a point to encourage her child to try out the other toys; during the first session, I as the facilitator did make it clear that the parents should mainly follow their children's lead but could still gently guide them accordingly as well as take opportunities to teach them how to better cooperate or share toys with other children with the understanding that these skills take some time to fully develop- one parent indicated that one of the aspects they liked most about the workshops was the socialization with other children that their own child was exposed to directly.

Overall, it was very rewarding and fairly easy to coordinate and work with partnering organizations to provide reliable and friendly resource professionals to come and visit in order to provide useful information and giveaways for the families.