Children’s museums are neutral sources of information and provide shared experiences through interactive exhibits. It exposes children to unfamiliar concepts in a non-threatening, hands-on way, and ensures the museum experience is accessible to those of differing backgrounds to create bridges of understanding.
Discovery Nights are private, secure evenings at CMON for children in foster care, a shelter, or who have experienced trauma. These children are in these situations through no fault of their own and are also desperately in need of a sense of normalcy – they just want to be like every other kid and deserve to be so!
Partnerships with the agencies who serve them give the children evenings of play and exploration at CMON. These vulnerable children also experience educational gaps and success may be further from their grasp. CMON provides an engaging, playful learning environment that can help bring them back into the educational fold while providing a sense of normalcy.
Discovery Nights are held regularly as a private, safe experience at no cost to the children or chaperones. The evenings are held when the museum is closed to the public to ensure their identity and status remains private. This gives these children the experiential benefits and the emotional and psychological relief they desperately need
