PICKENS COUNTY — Pickens County First Steps has teamed up with Bright by Text, a national parent texting program, to put expert tips, games and child development information directly into the hands of parents and caregivers.

This program is funded by a grant from United Way of Pickens County, a generous supporter of early childhood initiatives in Pickens County.

The texting service includes topics like brain development, games and activities, health and wellness, STEM, safety and more. Bright by Text partners with experts like PBS, Vroom, Sesame Street, CDC, and others to develop content for families with children aged prenatal to age eight. In addition to expert content, Bright by Text includes messages about information and resources specific to each community, like digital library resources, food pantries, and preschool / kindergarten open enrollment periods.

Bright by Text helps parents and caregivers support the healthy development of young children by illustrating fun and easy activities, providing positive parenting tips and resources, and even video content to guide a child’s development. The program is proven to build nurturing caregiver-child relationships, and positively impact a child’s healthy development and school readiness.

The service, available in English and Spanish, includes two to four text messages per week, often with links to learning activities, tips and community resources specifically targeted to the subscriber’s children’s ages and local zip code. The service is always free for subscribers, who can stop the service at any time. Bright by Text—a nonprofit—and its partners will never try to sell subscribers anything or share their data.

Pickens County First Steps Executive Director, Amity Buckner, says “We are thrilled to partner with our friends at United Way of Pickens County to provide age-specific and community-specific messages to families. Everyone wins when we work together to give families the tools they need to build happy, healthy children!”

To sign up, parents and caregivers with children under 8 can text the word SCKIDS to 274448.