It's Your Turn Contest
Now that you’ve met the team and you know where the idea came from, we thought we’d give you some information about our plans. You can expect to find blog posts on topics such as recipes, personal stories, parent education, news of interest, becoming more eco-friendly, party themes/games, ways to build community and of course information about the website.
We also want to start a dialogue with you about your communities and how the site can play a role in strengthening them. One of our main goals is to create a culture of connectivity and to build capacity in Canadian communities, so we feel it is important to get you involved in the development process.
Help us develop community solutions that can result in a positive change for you and your “village”. To encourage your participation we have a small incentive...a prize give-away! A gorgeous bracelet and choker set by
Emilie Kaplun Designs.
The bracelet and choker are made with frosted glass, czech crystals and swarovski crystals on sterling silver chain. Look for contest details at the end of this post.
More Than a Village builds on the African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child”. The idea for More Than a Village sprang from our understanding that there exists a great need to find an alternative to traditional childcare, which can be expensive, inconvenient and difficult to access.
The initial idea was that More Than A Village would be a forum, where parents could meet other parents and could “share care” of their children. Sharing childcare allows for work flexibility. Potentially, parent’s that meet on More Than A Village, could each work part-time and care for each other’s children part-time. This way neither family would have to pay child care costs. This is just one example of how childcare could be shared but there are a multitude of options available to parents. They decide amongst themselves what works best.
It quickly became obvious that this on-line forum could be so much more than a meeting place to organize shared care. The concept of More Than a Village grew from a forum to a complete support system, where friends can be made, communities can be formed and/or strengthened, and the stresses of parenthood can be eased with the help of other members and some useful on-line tools.
Key Features of More Than A Village website:
A Meeting Place
Parents can join the network and, through profile searches, direct messaging, group forums, and message boards, meet other parents in their neighbourhood/city.
Scheduler and Messaging Function
The calendar and scheduling function provides parents with a valuable service long after they have built up their social network. They can utilize the website to schedule play-dates with each other, co-ordinate their efforts to share care, exchange information and organize car-pooling to share the responsibilities of driving children to their common activities.
Information sharing
Finding the best sales, great family-friendly restaurants, excellent pre-schools and the like can be a difficult task. Talking to other families in your area can be invaluable. A message board on the site will allow members to post topics, ask questions, and contribute to conversations so that everyone can share their experiences and knowledge.
Calendar of events
Fun weekends start with great ideas. More Than A Village have an events section where organizers can post their events on the site, giving members a choice of functions to attend. It will also allow parents to create their own events and invite people in their network to attend.
Shared Care
Raising a family is not only time-consuming it is expensive. Our website will serve as a place to meet other families who are looking to share childcare. Once families have met and become comfortable with each other they can choose to share childcare and avoid daycare costs.
Keeping families in the know
Our resources section will contain articles, research, blog entries and product reviews. This section will keep parents/guardians posted on new developments or news that affects them and their families.
Links section
Parents can use our links section as a jumping off point to access other useful resources
The site is currently under development with an expected launch date of February 2010.
Now it’s your turn. We want to hear from you! Please join the conversation by commenting below;
We want to hear about your communities; what are your community’s needs, challenges and assets? What do you like about our plan and how do you see the site benefitting your family? What other information or services could More Than A Village offer you that would make your life easier?
CONTEST RULES
• This contest is open to Canadian Residents Only!
• Contest runs October 28th, 2009 To November 11th, 2009
• Contest ends 6pm, est on November 11, 2009.
• All valid entries will go into an automatic number generator.
• Winner will be announced on November 12th, 2009 on our blog, if the winner has not responded within 48 hours another winner will be chosen.
CONTEST DETAILS
Mandatory Entry:
1) Go to the
Emilie Kaplun Designs check out the Gallery section and let us know what your favorite item is by commenting on this blog post.
AND
2) Also in your comment on this blog answer one, or all, of our questions in this blog post.
Bonus Entries: (leave a separate comment for each entry)
3) Tweet about this contest. You can receive 1 entry PER day as long as you tweet about this once per day. Comment and let us know your twitter id and that you tweeted about #morethanavillage
4) Subscribe to our feed (or let us know if you already do).
5) Follow us on Twitter (@MoreThanVillage) or let us know if you already do.
6) Become a fan of More Than A Village on Facebook or let us know if you already are. (just write on our wall that you want to be entered)
See
official contest rules for more details.
Labels: contest, Emilie Kaplun Designs, giveaway, it's your turn, prize, website
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