November 28, 2018 Balancing Your Holiday Plate: Healthy and Fun Ways to Prepare Food Over the Holidays Families and community members are invited to join Trying Together, Let’s Move Pittsburgh, and Phipps Conservatory in a three-week food demonstration program. Each session includes a demonstration by Let’s Move Pittsburgh staff on how families can prepare fun, quick, and healthy meals together while using holiday leftovers like turkey, mashed potatoes, and ham. Take this opportunity to get tips on engaging your young children while cooking, learn simple and delicious recipes, and take home free ingredients to try out what you learned! A light dinner will be provided. For more information, contact Rachelle Duffy via phone (412.421.3889, ext. 113) or email (rachelle@tryingtogether.org). Share this flyer with your network.
November 21, 2018 Participate In Giving By Shopping Smart On Cyber Monday After spending time with our friends and family on Thanksgiving, community members are gearing up for big savings during Black Friday. However, not everyone is thrilled about the long lines and packed stores. That’s why Cyber Monday is a great opportunity to save big within the comforts of your own home. In the season of giving, continue giving by shopping smart through AmazonSmile and Giving Assistant. AmazonSmile AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to Trying Together. AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know. Same products, same prices, same service, with the added benefit of supporting your favorite nonprofits and charities. Support Trying Together by shopping now. Giving Assistant Support Trying Together while shopping online at your favorite stores. With 3,139 online stores participating, there are 3,139 opportunities to give. Join us and learn more by visiting the Giving Assistant website. How It Works Shop and Save Get coupons and up to 2x cash back at 3,139 top brands like Macy’s, Apple, and Target. Raise Cash Back Donations Opt-in to give 1% to 100% of the cash back you earn to your favorite cause at checkout. Watch It Work With every purchase, your cash back “microdonations” add up to make a real difference. Shopping Smart Don’t miss these simple opportunities to make a difference and support early childhood care and education.
November 20, 2018 KaBOOM! Announces Let’s Play Everywhere Challenge Winners KaBOOM! recently announced the winners of the Let’s Play Everywhere Challenge. As part of the Challenge, 10 grantees in Allegheny County were selected to receive a combined total of $200,000 in prize funds. Trying Together is pleased to announce that the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative was awarded one of these grants for The Neighborhood Play Stop Project. Learn more about it and the other grantees below. Challenge Winners The Let’s Play Everywhere Challenge selected nine organizations as winners, with a total of ten ideas: Trying Together (Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative) The Neighborhood Play Stop Project Glassport Community Outreach, Inc. Families Will Go Gaga to Play GaGa Pittsburgh Fulton PTO From Pittsburgh to Paris and Beyond! Garfield Jubilee Association, Inc. James Sensory Park Grounded Strategies MACS Discovery Walk Race Me! Pitcairn Green Playce Community Forge Number Mountain Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Ping Pong in the Plaza UniversalWit Play! to End Blight Focus on Renewal POW! (Place of Wonder) The Neighborhood Play Stop Project The Neighborhood Play Stop Project will reimagine existing spaces within Hazelwood by using play stops to encourage community engagement and playful interaction. These play stops may be featured in public spaces near businesses and civic locations such as grocery stores, green spaces, fire stations, and more. Conversations are underway to identify the finalized play stop locations. Impact By placing play stops in spaces that are not typically associated with play, this project will prompt community members of all ages to rethink their daily routines. For children, it’s an opportunity for imaginative play. For adults, it may be a space where they can take a mental break and play chess or engage in a calming playful activity. Similar to the Little Free Library movement, these play stops will be stewarded by various entities (the businesses where they are located, Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative member organizations, interested community members, etc.). A Closer Look Each stop will be based upon the common concept of play and will have playful interactive parts that relate to the location and the party stewarding the installation. For example, a stop outside a grocery store may include play items such as plastic fruits and vegetables to “purchase,” paper and pencils to create grocery lists, and laminated sheets of information about grocery store products. However, if a stop is located outside of a fire department, their play items may include play items such as firefighter helmets, a mini fire drill tower, and fire safety facts. Each stop will include a chalkboard with permanently affixed prompts for participants to write their thoughts. Prompts may include statement starters such as “When I play outside I like to…” or “At the grocery store I can find these colors…” About the Challenge The Let’s Play Everywhere Challenge is a design competition that took place in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania—presented by Keurig Dr. Pepper and KaBOOM!—to develop innovative ideas for making play easy and available for kids and families. This challenge is about creating opportunities for free, unstructured, unplanned play to ensure that all kids, no matter where they come from or where they live, get the active play they need to thrive. Learn More To learn more about the challenge winners and their ideas, read KaBOOM’s post.
November 2, 2018 Helping Young Children Cope with Fear and Tragedy Attend Helping Young Children Cope with Fear and Tragedy on Wednesday, November 7 at the Rodef Shalom Family Center to hear from panelists from the University of Pittsburgh; Child, Family, and Community Inc.; Trying Together; and Allegheny Intermediate Unit #3. Moderated by Roberta Schomburg, Interim Executive Director of the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media, this panel presentation will discuss methods and approaches that adults can use to help their child(ren) cope with fear and tragedy. Moderator Roberta Schomburg, Ph.D. Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College Interim Executive Director Panelists Dr. Kimberly Blair University of Pittsburgh Associate Professor of Psychiatry Dr. Mary Margaret Kerr University of Pittsburgh Professor of Applied Developmental Psychology & Administrative & Policy Studies Bonnie McNally-Brown, LPC Child, Family & Community Inc. Tracy Larson, MSED, CAGS, NCSP University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development Cara Ciminillo Trying Together Executive Director Dr. Cathy Lobaugh Allegheny Intermediate Unit #3 Assistant Executive Director for Early Childhood, Family & Community Services This event is free and open to the public. Please register. Share this flyer with your networks.
October 17, 2018 Trying Together Updates Privacy Policy Today, Trying Together released their updated Privacy Policy. This update was guided, in part, by the recent announcement that Facebook “will begin offering businesses a first-party cookie option with the Facebook pixel.” With this change, Trying Together works to remain proactive in letting their users know about and understand how this may affect their daily usage. Although internet browsers have been using cookies since the 1990s, internet tracking has remained a hot subject in the conversation digital privacy and security. This is no surprise as cookies themselves store specific pieces of a user’s information such as usernames, passwords, web histories, and more. However, when it comes to understanding the varying types and uses of cookies, the average American citizen may not be up to speed. What Are Cookies? In addition to a delicious snack, the term “cookies” is used to refer to small packages of data that are stored on our computers. These packages, or files, contain specific pieces of data in an attempt to better personalize the user’s experience. This data may consist of information such as entered usernames, saved passwords, entered addresses, and more. It’s because of these packets that users can remain logged into social media sites between uses, create “shopping carts” on online purchasing sites, and receive personalized ads based on your own shopping preferences. However, when considering internet privacy and security, it’s important to look deeper into what types of cookies are in place, which parties have access to cookies, and how each party utilizes that data. First-Party and Third-Party Cookies First-party cookies, as mentioned in the recent Facebook announcement, are packets of information collected by the website you are visiting. For example, if someone uses the Trying Together page and enters their name and email, cookies may pick up that information and store it just in case the user may need to insert that information on that website again in the future. These types of cookies are allowed in every web browser by default and enable features such as creating a “shopping cart” and staying logged into a social platform between uses. In general, websites utilize these cookies to increase ease of access or to curate website traffic analytics, however additional features may be included as well. Third-party cookies, however, are packages of information that are collected by a domain that is not the website the user is visiting. One of the primary uses of third-party cookies is to track browsing history to detect trends, generally represented through benefits such as personalized ads or recommendations. In relation to affecting a user’s day-to-day usage, third-party cookies play a very small role. These cookies are also enabled by default. As a consideration, all cookies are public, regardless of their type. It is best to monitor what type of information you are providing and to read through each website’s privacy statements to see how that data may be utilized. Cookie Concerns Concerns surrounding cookie use typically include topics related to privacy and security. For privacy, one concern is that because websites store packages of data and website usage, third-parties such as advertisers, users, and even government agencies can gain access to that information if given permission. For security, a major concern is security holes in browsers that may enable malicious parties to gain access to sensitive information such as credit card information, emails, and passwords. Both of these concerns hold weight and users should be proactive in looking into and understanding how their data is being utilized by the websites they are frequenting. Disabling Cookies If all of this talk about cookies and data storage is making you antsy, no need to worry. Users can disable both types of cookies at any time by changing their browser settings. Simply click on the “Help” menu or “Help Center” in your browser settings to learn how to adjust your tracking settings and cookie preferences. On mobile devices, this can be done by editing your “Privacy” settings through your browser. Keep in mind that disabling cookies may impact your ability to interact with a website. While disabling third-party cookies hardly impacts a user’s daily usage, disabling first-party cookies may affect website functions such as login credentials, purchasing ability, and general efficiency. How Does Trying Together Utilize Cookies and Data? As a brief overview, Trying Together utilizes cookies and collected data to provide customized content, contact users, fulfill orders, and more. We use various technologies such as cookies, web beacons, and pixel tags to store limited information when users interact with our site and emails. As an example, information may include non-personal data such as a mobile device identifier or MAC address, browser type, device model, and more. It may also include elements of service usage such as date and time of access, page visits, duration of visits, and others. On occasion, more personal information may be stored such as name, username, demographic information, and other publicly-observed data. To learn more about how Trying Together collects and utilizes user data, read our Privacy Policy. Questions If you have any questions or concerns regarding Trying Together’s privacy policy or data storage, please contact: info@tryingtogether.org
April 19, 2018 Fathers Trying Together Are you a single father or caregiver? Would you like to build positive memories with your child and learn healthy ways to cope with barriers and stress? Join us for adult group discussion and parent-child interaction activities such as: arts and crafts coding learning through play reading STEM This event is currently being held virtually via Zoom from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. on Fridays. Learn More For more information, contact Neil Walker at 412.728.2892 or neil@tryingtogether.org. Share this flyer with your networks.
