REAL is an innovative partnership between the Montgomery County, MD Department of Health and Human Services Office of Eligibility and Support Services, The Jewish Council for the Aging’s Heyman Interages Center and Montgomery County Public Libraries. The REAl program brings together staff and volunteers from these organizations with the goal of transforming the time children spend waiting at four DHHS Service Centers into a fun and educational experience. DHHS created specific areas within the waiting rooms of the four DHHS offices to make them more inviting to children and to frame the REAL Program. Each office has also identified DHHS staff to support the needs of the program. The Kid’s Reading Corners are marked with signs advertising the program and equipped with one or two small tables and chairs where program activities take place. In the “Corners,” trained JCA Interages volunteers age 50+ read and engage in language, literacy and healthy living activities with children, their families and caregivers. Each DHHS service center has a group of dedicated volunteers who work weekly in two-hour shifts. Volunteers read with the children and select activities based on the needs of the children that are present on a particular day. Volunteers engage in numerous age-appropriate educational games and activities, including shape and color pattern games, fresh fruit and vegetable identification, dental health, drawing and coloring, and puppet storytelling for the younger children. Reading activities for older children are also available. Volunteers also boost caregivers’ ability to support the development of children’s language, literacy and healthy habits by providing model behaviors and helpful printed information. The Montgomery County Public Libraries provides books, information about obtaining a library card and library activities. Over the past two years REAL volunteers have served more than 3,000 children and their families and given away over 1,000 books.
The funding provided by Women Who Care will be used to enhance the materials used with the children, including but not limited to educational games, arts and craft materials, puppets, support materials like hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes, and books for the children to take home. It will also allow JCA Interages to enhance volunteer training and establish best practices for services provided to children and their families.
