Welcome to Let’s Talk by WiscoFam, a partnership with Go Oshkosh Kids and The Women’s Fund of Oshkosh!
Learn more about our NEW interactive monthly podcast to connect with local experts that will help us to tackle some of the biggest challenges in parenting. We’ll get the tools we need to have a conversation with our kids that strengthens our relationships while navigating tricky topics like smart internet use, body image, friendships, relationships, and more.
Visit GoOshkoshKids.com
Meet our Hosts
Amanda Chavez, Owner & Creative Director, WiscoFam / Go Valley Kids / Go Oshkosh Kids
Born and raised in Appleton, Wisconsin, Amanda Chavez has a deep love for her community. As a busy mom of 2 little girls, she and her husband are always on the lookout for fun things to do and share with others. Her work combines all of her passions – motherhood, design, and community. Some of her other interests also peak through as well, including baking, photography, and sewing!
Karlene Grabner, Executive Director, Women’s Fund of the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation
Karlene Grabner is a graduate of Lourdes Academy and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where she studied finance and economics. She has shared her knowledge and passion for improving the Oshkosh community for the past 20 years through her work at the Oshkosh Community Foundation and Women’s Fund of Oshkosh. Karlene loves playing board games with her family, and when the weather is right, you’ll find them enjoying boating, wakeboarding, and kayaking with their dog, Bago.
Special Thanks
Liz Schultz, Producer, WiscoFam / Go Valley Kids / Go Oshkosh Kids
Marlo Ambras, Audio & Video Engineer, Ambas Creative
Transcript
[Amanda]
Hello and welcome to Let’s Talk, the show that will connect families in Oshkosh with folks to answer your parenting questions. I’m Amanda Chavez, here with my co-host Karlene Grabner. This summer my team at Go Valley Kids in partnership with the Women’s Fund of Oshkosh launched Go Oshkosh Kids, a website designed to strengthen families by connecting them with the resources they need to be healthy, happy, and successful. We are forming relationships in the community to make information from organizations that work with families and children easy to access. Along with creating an easy-to-navigate resource hub, we will bring you all of the fun things that you look for from Go Valley Kids — the best parks, community events, spots to play and explore year-round — all with a focus on the Oshkosh area!
I’m so excited to be a partner on this new adventure with an organization dedicated to improving the lives of women, families, and all members of the communities in Winnebago County through philanthropy, grant-making, and education. Meet Karlene!
[Karlene]
Thanks, Amanda. We’re so excited to be partnering with Go Valley Kids, now Go Oshkosh Kids as well. People are probably wondering why and how this partnership came about. In 2018 and 2019, the Women’s Fund took on an adventure to kind of dissect the family dynamics in the community of Winnebago County. We have wonderful resources that take care of our kiddos in the Oshkosh area but we were questioning how many resources are there for our parents, grandparents, and people that are directly related to taking care of little ones. In all of the focus groups that we did, about 10-15 focus groups and surveys and all that great stuff to listen to what the parent community said, and the biggest thing that they talked about is the partnership that you are hearing about now: connecting parents to each other, having conversations that are real, and talking about things that we all want to learn more about and need to understand from people that are going through the exact same stuff in our community.
[Amanda]
While building relationships and the library of resources for caregivers and parents, we wanted to bring information to you in a super accessible way. Let’s Talk! will be easy to listen to on your way to work, dropping off the kids at school, or taking a neighborhood walk. There will be follow-up and more information available on topics on our website and social media.
[Karlene]
We’re looking forward in January 2022 to welcoming our first guests Kate Mann with the Oshkosh Police Department and Lindsay Loewe from Collaborative Wellness. They are both experts in the field of internet safety and right after the holidays with the purchases of phones and iPads and gaming devices, we thought it was an appropriate time to bring them in and have some real conversation about what’s appropriate for screen time, brain development when it comes to our kiddos and screen time and all of that.
[Amanda]
Over the next 6 months, we will tackle topics on body positivity, winter wellness, friendship and relationships, literacy, water safety, and more.
If you have any questions, or suggestions for future topics, send them to us at hello@gooshkoshkids.com, visit gooshkoshkids.com or find us on Facebook in our Go Oshkosh Kids group.
[Karlene]
Thank you for joining us today! Our producer and editor is Liz Schultz, our audio and video engineers are Marlo and Patricia Ambas from Ambas Creative, and we’re your hosts, Karlene Grabner and Amanda Chavez and we cannot wait to keep talking to you in 2022.
