IFCC holds events for informal child care providers to help better themselves as providers for children. I attended one event as a helping hand and photographer. The event was the Spring Into Wellness event, which was held on Saturday, April 14th 2018  from 9:30am-2pm. I created the flyer for this event as I mentioned and showed in a previous blog. The event was a way to help providers feel good and happy through activities that were going to happen at the event. I got to the venue at 8:30am to help sign people in and direct them to the area where they will wait until it’s time to start. Once the event started, I spent the rest of the time taking photos of the event. Before we continue, while I did take photos for this event, I was told not to post any of them anywhere.

There were three activities that the event had available. They were Afro-Flow Yoga, Healing Through Art and Nurture and Nourish Your Natural Beauty. Afro-Flow Yoga was yoga with some dance movement to get the blood flowing. There was a drummer there to set the mood for each segment. People were really getting into the poses and mood of the room. There was good energy all around. Everyone felt lighter and better after the yoga session was over. After this, they were separated into two groups. One group did Healing Through Art and the other went to the Natural Beauty seminar. After an hour, they would switch and do the other event.

Healing through Art was an art therapy session lead by an art therapist that explored struggles and strengths through arts and crafts. An activity they did was take a circle piece of watercolor paper and on one side express a struggle you have with the kids they care for. On the other side, they expressed a strength they had. The providers used crayons, watercolors and markers to express how they felt. Afterwards, they shared their pieces and talked about it. One of the people broke down crying when explaining hers and everyone was very supportive.

The Nurture and Nourish Your Natural Beauty was a seminar run by the CEO of the Brown Crayon Project about skin and hair care products that are safe to use on children and made with organic ingredients. Everyone that came to the event got some of her body care products and she went over what each one was and how to use them. Then she gave them yogurt, honey and brown sugar and taught them how to make a scrub for themselves. It was an informative class about whats good for your skin and what is not good for it.

When the event came to a close, IFCC held a raffle and three people won books and toys that the kids they care for can play with. Then we gave away bags with the hair and skin care products and other goodies for the providers to enjoy. After that, I was dismissed and told we would go through the photos the next time we met. This was a very wholesome event overall. Everyone came together and felt better about themselves and supported each other. They learned from this experience and came out of it a stronger person in the end.