During the year the Museum piloted a specialized program, Everyone Explores, supporting children with special and medical needs and their families in their homes or in care settings, like hospitals. Designed to be used online, using a new website as a mechanism for support and connection, Everyone Explores offers families access to specially created activities, tips on ways to adapt activities to children’s specific capabilities, and live opportunities to connect with the Museum’s Health and Wellness Educator and other families.  

An early version of Everyone Explores was piloted in winter 2021 with the Child Life Specialists, children, and families at Franciscan Hospital. During the pilot, the Museum provided a small number of kits of creative materials to the Child Life Specialists to share with children in hospital settings. The early version of the website supported children and families in using the kits during hospital visits. A fuller version of Everyone Explores was piloted in spring 2021 and aims to support a broader community of children and families at-home who have participated in the Museum’s Morningstar Access program, developed for children with special or medical needs. Since June of 2021, the Museum has been running two versions of Morningstar Access – one designed to support children with medical needs and the other designed to support children with sensory needs or other types of needs that prevent them from wearing masks.