Sweet Dreamzzz brings sleep education to Washington, D.C

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. - Feb. 10, 2015 - PRLog -- Local nonprofit organization Sweet Dreamzzz, Inc. will spend National Sleep Awareness week expanding the reach of their sleep education. They will provide Mary’s Center, a federally qualified health center in Washington, D.C., with their Early Childhood Sleep Education Program™ and Parent Sleep Education Workshop™. Sweet Dreamzzz™ is the only nonprofit in the country to bring sleep education to at-risk youth and their families, and this is their first time in D.C.

The organization received an $11,000 Innovation Grant from the Ruddie Memorial Youth Foundation to fund this program. The Innovation Grants are given to youth-serving nonprofit organizations whose missions support innovative services that help underprivileged youth reach their full potential.

Sweet Dreamzzz, Inc. educates at-risk children and their families on the importance of sleep and gives them bedtime essentials so they can feel rested and ready to learn.

The Early Childhood Sleep Education Program is a two-week, in-school program that includes classroom enrichment activities and a sleep kit. The structure behind this program helps preschoolers, their parents, and their teachers work together to ensure these children are getting the sleep necessary to learn effectively. The Parent Sleep Education Workshop equips parents with sleep education and at-home tools to reinforce the lessons their children will be receiving in the classroom during their two-week program.

The students’ sleep kits include a Sweet Dreamzzz Teddy Bear that will be used in their classroom instruction. As the teachers educate the children on healthy bedtime activities, the children will use that information to prepare their bears for bed.  After the two week classroom instruction, the children can take their bears home and continue the bedtime routine with the help of their parents, who have also learned the routine.  This program will serve 50 preschool students and 225 parents.

Sweet Dreamzzz will begin to roll out the program on Friday, March 6 with a Teacher Workshop. The two-week Early Childhood Sleep Education Program will begin in the classroom on Monday, March 9. Two Parent Sleep Education Workshops will take place on both Monday, March 9, and Tuesday, March 10.  Mary’s Center adult educators will also attend a Train-the-Trainer session on Monday.

Since its inception in 1998, Sweet Dreamzzz has been able to serve over 42,000 children with sleep education.  For information on how you can help by volunteering or organizing collections for Sweet Dreamzzz, or to find out about getting one of the sleep programs at your school, call the office at 248-478-3242 or visit www.SweetDreamzzz.org.