Louisiana Children’s Museum
Now that we’ve clearly and intentionally defined the communities we want to work alongside, we’ll continue to develop clear strategies for engaging more deeply and authentically—together.
Louisiana Children’s Museum
Annual operating budget: $1 million–$4.9 million
Total number of employees: 55
Annual visitorship: 175,000
**Numbers reported at time of participation
Our plan: Deepen our understanding
Expanding access to LCM was our strategic goal—and to achieve that, we needed first to identify our target audience and understand their needs. We knew that in order to be most successful working alongside specific demographic groups, we had to intimately understand how they wanted to be engaged. That understanding would guide what shifts we would need to make organizationally to effectively engage those groups.
Our projects: Listening to and learning from partners
To better understand how to intentionally engage Latinx families through STEM and other museum activities, we held listening and learning sessions with community leaders and partner organizations from Latinx communities across our region. We aimed to share with external audiences the work we have done and continue to do, in order to foster a sense of belonging among families from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. These projects, we hoped, would demonstrate that LCM is relevant to Latinx visitors and families.
We built community relationships to understand best practices around engaging with Latinx communities, and cultivated partnerships with Latinx community members and organizations to enhance our programming and events. We translated flyers, signs, and social media posts into Spanish, and advertised in multicultural magazines and organizations.
Internally, we offered an increased hourly rate for bilingual staff members using more than one language in their role. Waiting to confirm proposed updated text:
Other organizational shifts included a voter registration drive through our partnership with Our Voice Nuestra Voz and discussions with staff around legal rights related to ICE visits. During this time we’ve discussed many programs to be responsive to our communities in this needful time, and we’ve prioritized based on the most immediate of those we serve. We also identified future opportunities for internal capacity-building such as inclusive language training and cultural sensitivity training for staff.
Our takeaways: Jump in and try it
Our participation in Cambio gave us a level of credibility with the community that we never expected—it was like a secret asset that opened doors for our institution. We now have a treasure trove of ideas and resources to share:
- culture influences all of us; we must take time to consider others’ perspectives
- networking, idea sharing, and declaring our values make us a stronger institution
- ongoing professional development is rejuvenating!
We continue to deepen our understanding of bilingual best practices, listen to community needs to better serve those needs, and take a big-picture approach to conveying our mission and vision to our community. We’re celebrating the small victories along the way!
To read other museums’ stories of change, visit our Cambio Stories page.
