Bigger is not necessarily better anymore, especially when it comes to gatherings.
However, that doesn’t mean children and families can’t get together for some fun, to find resources and see who is out there to help as we all get back to school and work during an ongoing pandemic.
For more than a decade, thousands got back into the school groove each year by attending the annual The Children’s Trust Family Expo, which offered free resources, information and entertainment. Last year, the Family Expo was canceled, due to pandemic safety concerns, but this year, the Family Expo is back as four separate, smaller events, and they will be popping up in a neighborhood near you.
The Children’s Trust is trading in its single, enormous event of year’s past for four smaller and more directed events, in order to reach out in the community and ensure that children and families have all the information and resources they need to start off the school year with everything they need.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t also mention all the fun the Family Expo pop-ups have to offer.
Three of the pop-up-style Family Expo events will be held throughout Miami-Dade County, starting in the south, then it will head north, and finally make its way downtown. A fourth and final Family Expo pop-up will be held as a drive-thru event In the western part of the county, in Doral, at the new Jackson West Medical Center at the end of September.
These individual expos won’t be as large as previous expos, but they all come with the same level of excitement, fun and resources now custom-tailored to the neighborhoods they are reaching.
The first three expos will be held on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., starting in late August and running through September (except for Labor Day weekend). The final drive-thru event will be on Sept. 25, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“With all the challenges and trauma we’ve suffered over the past 18 months, we decided it was time for the Family Expo to reach out to those who could benefit most from what they offer,” Trust Director of Communications Ximena Nunez said.
Nunez said The Trust reached out to its extensive Trust-provider network and others to make sure all the exhibitor spaces would be filled with the most important and timely providers in child care, after-school programming, arts and sports, STEM, health and wellness, special populations, family services and more.
The Trust pop-up events will also provide entertainment that will include animal exhibits, balloon artists, stilt walkers, magicians, bounce houses and more. Nunez said families should arrive as early as possible to ensure they can take advantage of the many giveaways for the upcoming year, including The Children’s Trust backpack giveaway.
The Trust Family Expos will be held alongside popular existing events at venues that are well known to each community, in order to build even more excitement.
Click or tap here to learn more about the Family Expo events.