Villas Prestige & Services, through the voice of Anne-Claire, has always had the well-being of children at heart, for its customers of course, by imagining “child friendly” stays, but also for its employees, by arranging working hours adapted to a serene parenthood!
Partnering with 1001mots and helping them with their mission was therefore an obvious choice for VPS!
The 1001mots association in a few words
1001mots was created in 2017 by a group of passionate and complementary co-founders: their observation was that many children enter school with little or no speech abilities, which prevents them from reaching their full potential. Their vision was to encourage parents to better awaken their child’s language skills themselves, from the very first months.
To solve this, they created a remote parenting support program, co-constructed with Esther Duflo’s J-PAL laboratory. Esther Duflo’s laboratory subsequently published a study on the program, proving a 20% increase in the reading practices of parents with their children aged 0 to 3 years!
What to do before school to give every child a chance?
The 1001mots association has set up concrete actions to help parents of children aged 0 to 3 years old, who encounter difficulties and wish to be helped.
The objective is to accompany parents in the awakening of the language of their toddlers by suggesting activity ideas and books to look at together, via a mostly remote support:
- 1 book mailing every 2 months
- 2 to 3 individual calls with speech therapists
- 3 text messages and videos per week, with ideas about reading books, playing and talking with the toddlers
- Workshops for parents with a 1001mots professional to put into practice the advice and ideas received by SMS. It is also the families who exchange ideas and advice among themselves. “Parent Ambassadors” are trained to co-facilitate the workshops and suggest to new parents to sign up.
This personalized follow-up lasts 6 months and is renewable. The goal is for each child to arrive at kindergarten with a good command of language by the age of 3, in order to prevent the early widening of educational inequalities.
Encouraging results and a goal to support 10,000 families by 2023!
The feedback from families about the 1001mots program is very positive. After 6 months of support, 50% to 66% of families re-enroll for a new support cycle. Qualitative surveys with parents shed light on the reasons for this adoption: 90% of parents declare that 1001mots’ text messages give them confidence in their role as parents. Many parents also report that the program has enriched their relationship with their child: many say they have discovered that their 12- or 24-month-old child could be interested in books, whereas previously he or she was not.
In 2021, the 1001mots association accompanied 2200 families across 5 counties. For the year 2023, the association has set itself the goal of reaching 10,000 families in 8 counties! It wishes to densify its presence in its current territories of establishment by giving more extent to the partnerships with the CAF and PMI. 1001mots also intends to introduce its program in 3 to 5 new counties, densely populated territories where poverty rates are high compared to national figures.
