Valley Children's Museum

Mission:

Our mission is to spark the adventure of life-long learning for children and their grown-ups. This directly addresses the need for play-based educational programs in our region. Valley Children's Museum will provide fun, meaningful interactions for children and their friends, adults, schools and community. No other organization in our region addresses this need.

Valley Children's Museum provides opportunities for educational play for children, families and school groups through fun, interactive exhibits and programs. Designed as a kid-friendly community with themes that reflect the Tri-Valley and our local communities, the museum stimulates curiosity, creativity, imagination, and learning through exploration of the natural world, the sciences, the arts, and social role-playing.

Vision:

Children's museums create a spark for discovery and life-long learning. By encouraging kids to explore and touch, they become excited about what they are learning and want to learn more. Medical research has now confirmed what social sciences have long contended, that children stimulated to more deeply experience the world around them gain a head start that reaps rewards for the rest of their lives.

Valley Children's Museum is a non-profit organization aimed at providing this educational advantage to the under-10 children of the Tri-Valley and surrounding communities. The Moving Mission program is just the first wave. Valley Children's Museum expects to open the doors of a permanent museum in Dublin, California within a few years.

Valley Children's Museum shall serve as a unique community resource that:

- Provides opportunities for children, families, educators and parenting groups to learn about themselves and the world around them in a creative, noncommercial environment.
- Provides an enriching atmosphere in which to explore a multitude of cultures.
- Provides access to all children and caregivers regardless of ethnicity, disability, or economic status.
- Provides teens and seniors in the community volunteer opportunities.

Values:

At Valley Children's Museum, we believe that:

- In order to understand the world around them, children need to explore, handle, create and role play in a safe, engaging and developmentally appropriate environment.
- Informal educational settings allow children to learn at their own pace and according to their own learning style.
- Building partnerships with local schools, organizations, businesses and civic groups will impact and broaden the scope and quality of museum exhibits and programs, in turn fostering stronger, more well-connected communities within the region.
- By employing environmentally sensitive materials and systems in the design and operation of the building, the museum will demonstrate state-of-the-art technologies that will help children learn to be stewards of the environment.
- By including volunteers as a central part of the museum's functions the museum fosters compassion, commitment and responsibility in those individuals who develop and create the exhibits and/or work with the children and their families.