Salta Workshops

A set of activities for infants, toddlers, and their caregivers aimed at strengthening the child-adult bond, creating opportunities for quality time together and enhancing parental knowledge, awareness, and confidence to support optimal child development. These activities are subsidized by the municipality and offered widely across the city to encourage all residents to participate. Parents find the workshops valuable, establishing Salta workshops as a brand renowned for delivering high-quality content.

The window of opportunity for early childhood development is unique and limited. In toddlers, the rate of new neural connections formed each day is immense, and the way they learn about the world around them is crucial for establishing emotional and psychological wellbeing.

Why develop a municipal cultural package for early childhood?

Public demand for activities tailored to early childhood is increasing, along with the range of offerings. However, the abundance of activities can be confusing; residents have difficulty finding content suitable for toddlers, and not all activities are high-quality or led by professionals. Additionally, barriers such as cost or distance prevent entire populations from consuming these activities.

In response to these challenges, we developed the Salta workshops: a collection of professionally certified activities tailored for toddlers and their parents, offered at a subsidized price. These activities take place in community centers, making them accessible to everyone.

Content: The activities selected for the program support early childhood developmental processes and include recreational and enrichment activities, workshops to strengthen the parent-child bond, and initiatives for building a community of parents in the neighborhood.

Framework: Salta workshops are led by knowledgeable and experienced professionals and are designed to be playful. Each workshop consists of 3-6 sessions, facilitating both an individual and group process. The workshops are designed to empower caregivers by providing them with tools, enhancing their sense of competence and supporting their personal and mental wellbeing.

Community adaptation: Early childhood coordinators at community centers choose activities from the municipal program based on the neighborhood residents’ characteristics, needs, and preferences.

Partnering municipal units: The Community, Culture, and Sports Administration: community centers, libraries throughout the city, and the Culture Division

קישקושולוגיה (צילום אילן ספירא)

Impact

 

  • High-quality development of critical skills in toddlers and strengthening the child-adult bond.
  • Resident satisfaction – the workshops are perceived as high quality and valuable, offering effective learning opportunities and practical parenting tools.
  • Increased use of additional municipal services - close and continuous interaction with the professional staff helps identify needs and connect families with other municipal resources (such as various welfare services).
  • Broad reach - in 2023, about 250 workshops were held annually across the city (each consisting of multiple sessions).
  • High participation rates - parents consistently report high satisfaction with the quality of the workshops, which continue to reach full capacity.

What we learned along the way

  • We found that workshops consisting of 3-6 sessions align well with residents’ willingness to commit and facilitate a meaningful process.
  • Resident feedback indicates that paid activities foster a greater sense of commitment and are perceived as being of higher quality.
  • The balance between a city-wide approach and a localized community perspective is achieved through a clear division of responsibilities: the municipal body is responsible for selecting activities, training instructors, and providing professional support for community coordinators, while early childhood coordinators in neighborhood centers select content suited to their community and manage promotion and accessibility of the activities for local residents.
  • The flexibility and expertise of the instructional team allow the same workshop to be offered across multiple neighborhoods, carefully tailored to meet the unique needs of each community.
  • The workshop content should be regularly updated and suitable facilitators should be chosen to ensure relevance, quality and variety.
קונטקטקידס9 (צילום שני לויה)

The project was created and operated in partnership with

Principles for planning workshops for children aged birth to 3