Free Family Access Open Houses Come To DuPage Children's Museum

NAPERVILLE, IL — DuPage Children's Museum (DCM) is now offering free programming to create more opportunities for children with different developmental, economic, social and physical backgrounds. The Family Access Open House events are made possible via DCM's partnership with a number of social service groups, schools and other organizations.

"The Open House model encourages participating families to enjoy access to all of the DCM exhibit experiences, meet and form friendships with other families, and extend joyful discoveries through Museum membership," Katie Gullone, Senior Manager of Early Learning and Family Engagement at DCM said in a news release.

Some children who take advantage of the Family Access Open Houses have never visited DCM before, so their parents get to see them discover and explore the exhibits for the first time. One parent told DCM, “I have never seen some of the materials like the ones at the Museum before. They are ‘wow’ and so great to see how (my child) uses the blocks here."

The museum also offers reduced memberships to give more families access to its services.

DCM has partnered with the following organizations to make its new Family Access Open House events and other programming possible:

• Wheaton Warrenville Early Childhood
  Collaborative (WWECC) Head Start Programs
• West Chicago Elementary School District 33
• Naperville Community Unit School District 203
• East Aurora School District 131
• VNA Health Care

To date, close to 600 children have taken part in the family access program offered by DCM.

Katey Baldassano, who works as the Birth to Three Program Administrator at West Chicago School District 33, said in a statement, “At the museum, we received overwhelming feedback from families on how kind, helpful, patient and welcoming the staff of the museum were."