A variety of services and organizations were made available to parents in the community at the Parent and Community Resource Fair at El Camino College on June 3.

The fair, which was sponsored by El Camino’s Childhood Education Department and Student Services, is meant to give attending college parents and community members access to resources, Childhood Development professor Cynthia Cervantes said.

“I love seeing children and families on campus,” Cervantes, said. “It’s an event to help make our parents welcome, our children welcome and also it’s to help create a future generation of Warriors.”

Getting children to think about college later in life was another goal of the fair, with the dual enrollment program being one of the main resources shown to attending parents.

The program is meant to help disadvantaged students get a college education, Dual Enrollment Coordinator Michelle Arthur said.

“It’s meant to expose … historically underrepresented students and their families to the possibility and power of the college,” Arthur said. “And then affordability, it’s free. In some instances, their textbooks and course materials are free, depending on the class they take.”

The fair also provided a multitude of activities for children, from a giant Connect Four playset to a small, touch pool of sea life by the Roundhouse Aquarium Teaching Center, where 4-year-old Sebastian Bermudez got to touch a starfish.

Bermudez’s mother Elizabeth, a classified employee at El Camino’s MESA Program, which aims to help underserved and underrepresented students achieve success in math- and science-based degrees, was invited to check out the fair with her children.

“My son, I think, has been the one that’s most engaged with the activities and other kids for sure,” Bermudez said. “As somebody that works here, it’s just helpful for me to … reinforce my knowledge on the services that are available to students.”

This year’s fair is much larger than the previous year’s, with this year featuring a playgroup for children and a multitude of vendors from outside the college for parents, Child Development Club Inter-Club Council representative Allison Rafters said.

Some of the booths included the Roundhouse Aquarium from Manhattan Beach, the Family Law Center and Rainbow Services, a nonprofit that provides help for domestic abuse.

“There’s a whole bunch of different resources alongside our ECC programs as well,” Rafters said. “We don’t have so much of a parenting focus on campus, and we’re trying to change that, we really want our parents to feel accepted.”

Allison said she hopes more parents come to El Camino.

“My ultimate goal is for our parents to see that they’re valued on campus,” she said. “We value you and your struggles. My goal is that parents know that this is a safe space.”