Our Programs and Services
Classroom Curriculum
Our Classroom Curriculum Program is a four-hour training course for early childhood educators (3K – PreK) to learn about and implement a student-focused, two-week curriculum, aligned to HighScope and Creative Curriculum, focused on healthy sleep. Teachers learn how sleep impacts children’s well-being, how sleep deficits can negatively impact children’s academic outcomes, socio-emotional skills, and physical and mental health.
Sleep & Well-Being Professional Development
The Sleep and Wellbeing Professional Development series is a program that provides sleep health education for human service professionals who work in settings that promote child and family wellbeing for communities experiencing poverty. The workshop is highly interactive, targeted to meet the day-to-day needs staff and families have in the field. Our facilitators provide actionable tools and resources participants can use directly with the communities they support.
The program encompasses two types of workshops.
1) Professional development workshops that leverage a tool called the Flipchart. The Flipchart provides easy-to-follow prompts for staff on one side, while displaying important information to families on the other side.
2) General professional development workshops for human service providers who support caregivers.
Fostering Sleep
Research shows that sleep problems among children in foster care are more common and more severe than in children who live with their families of origin. Fostering Sleep is a 90-minute, evidence-based healthy sleep workshop for foster-care staff and parents, based on a wealth of medical and academic sleep research and industry expertise. Staff and parents learn the elements of healthy sleep and its essential role in children’s well-being, as well as actionable and proven strategies for healthy sleep. Additionally, participants receive materials to help integrate sleep health into their practice, as well as pajamas and storybooks for the children in their care.
Bedtime READY for Kids
Bedtime READY for Kids is a 90-minute interactive workshop that teaches children in grades K-3 about the importance of healthy sleep and a bedtime routine. Each year, 84 sessions are offered at one of Pajama Program’s three centers in New York City, Atlanta or Detroit, or at a participating school. During the workshop, children learn the R.E.A.D.Y. Bedtime Routine, “shop” for a storybook from the center’s bookshelves, enjoy a healthy snack and read a story with a volunteer. All children leave with their chosen storybook, a new pair of pajamas, and the knowledge that sleep can be their superpower.
Bedtime READY for Families
Bedtime READY for Families is a 90-minute interactive workshop for caregivers, offered in English and Spanish, about the importance of healthy sleep and how it contributes to the overall well-being of the children under their care. Caregivers can share their experiences and knowledge, as well learn resources and tips for troubleshooting the bedtime challenges they face at home. This program is often paired with Bedtime READY for Kids workshops to reinforce the R.E.A.D.Y. Bedtime Routine that children learn in Pajama Program Centers. In the 2024-2025 school year, 36 workshops will be facilitated in New York City, Atlanta, Detroit or virtually— tripling the reach from the previous year.
Pajama Program
Our legacy program of distributing new pajamas and storybooks to children has reached more than 8 million children ages 12 and younger who are experiencing poverty throughout the United States. We are proud of our network of 750 active Pajama Partners that provide children with tools for a comfortable bedtime: they join ranks of the more than 4,000 community-based organizations we’ve partnered with since 2001. Pajama Partners range in organization type, but the majority are social service agencies (32%), shelters (20%), educational services (18%), foster care agencies (8%) and healthcare services (3%).