Kids New West wants to hear from parents or community members with something to say about raising kids in the Royal City.
The committee is launching an ambassador program, which involves having New Westminsterites with an interest in parenting curate the group's social media pages. The goal is to have people throughout the city share their views, concerns, stories, fun ideas, or whatever other tidbit they might want to pass on to Kids New West followers.
"It's really about kind of cultivating that voice and creating conversations from parent to parent and not just committee to world," says Jen Arbo, who owns Hyack Interactive, a marketing and communications company that has done consulting work for Kids New West. "I think it's important for other people to get a chance to talk."
Kids New West hosts a website that connects families in the city with community service providers, information, resources and events. The ambassador position involves a week of managing posts and responding on the Kids New West Facebook page primarily, but can also mean hosting the blog and its Twitter profile. Curators have the opportunity to shed light on issues that are important to them personally, Arbo says.
"They could blog about something that's burning a hole in their bag," she says. "It would be great to hear some personal stories."
As an example, Arbo has a friend who went through in vitro fertilization to conceive.
"Without pushing her, I'd love to hear a little bit more of the trials and tribulations they felt going through that process," explains Arbo.
Other, more light-hearted topics could be reviews of what some parents think are the most family-friendly businesses in New West, or what makes a family-friendly business. Arbo also suggests topics such as quick-and-healthy food choices, fun craft ideas, developmental milestones. They could write about how they survived teething, sleep-deprivation, temper tantrums, food-avoiders, teen angst, and on and on. There is really an unlimited bounty of parenting topics to focus on.
The purpose of the ambassador program is to engage parents, especially those with pre-school-aged kids who can be isolated compared to those with older children.
"Early childhood years can be lonely," says Arbo, a mom of a six-year-old boy.
The hope is to help eliminate the isolation parents sometimes feel, and to bring more voices into the chorus of New West parents. Those who are interested in putting their unique stamp on the Kids New West social media channels, can sign up through the Facebook page (go to Facebook and type Kids New West in the search bar), or visit its website at kidsnewwest.ca.
