Cool Culture builds bridges between families from low-income communities and cultural institutions in New York City, so that children from all economic backgrounds can benefit from early exposure to these outstanding resources. Why Cool Culture? Family visits to museums, botanical gardens, wildlife centers, and other cultural institutions provide young children with the kind of early learning experiences, such as language and literacy building, that are fundamental to school success. These visits also offer parents or guardians and their children the opportunity to explore and learn together. Parent-child and guardian-child interactions that take place during cultural experiences foster young children's verbal literacy, vocabulary development, and critical thinking. Yet too many low-income parents and caregivers miss out on these opportunities to support their children's learning during non-school hours. Prevented by financial barriers, by lack of information, or by the perception that cultural institutions are "not for them," low-income families rarely visit cultural institutions or participate in their programs. While many institutions are eager to welcome this underrepresented population, they often do not have the resources or community presence to market to them successfully. What We Do Cool Culture connects low-income families and cultural institutions, empowering parents and guardians to take advantage of these unique educational resources. Our programs are specifically designed to help low-income families overcome the obstacles that prevent them from visiting arts and cultural institutions. Once these obstacles are removed, parents and guardians learn techniques and approaches to make their visits as beneficial for their children's learning as possible. And because we provide access to a range of cultural institutions, each with its own valuable resources, we offer year-round opportunities for families to support their children's education Cool Culture Today Founded in 1999, Cool Culture currently works with families and staff in Over 450 Head Start, city-funded child care centers and public school Pre-K programs. throughout the five boroughs.