Not Your Average Parenting Class

This week we're highlighting United Planning Organization (UPO), based in Washington D.C. and dedicated to being change agents by offering services in early education, youth, community wellness, comprehensive treatment centers, and more to the community that surrounds them. One of these services is Parent Cafes. We asked them to share with us their Parent Café experience and some the benefits and success they reaped as a result of the cafes. Here is what they had to say:

Have you ever heard the expression, “The proof is in the pudding?” That saying perfectly expresses the value found within a Be Strong Families Parent Café. 

  A Parent Café is not your average parenting class in which you have a presenter giving forth “expert parenting advice.” It is a gathering of parents and family members coming together in a warm, welcoming, non-judgmental space to share their own parenting trials and triumphs and learning from one another.  Whether you are a facilitator, host or parent participant, after experiencing a Be Strong Families Parent Café, you will walk away with a “new recipe” for strengthening your family.  It may be that you gain a new appreciation for how you look at a situation, a valuable community resource, a new friend or just the feeling of being heard.  The Parent Café is both a humbling and empowering experience. Hearing another person’s story often affords us the opportunity to step back and view a situation in a way that we may not have previously considered; subsequently, we gain a greater perspective and appreciation for our own situations.  I like to think of a Parent Café as food for our spirits!  It promotes resilience and even though we discuss intense topics, the nurturing that occurs within the room has its own benefits; it is often the beginning of the healing process for many parents and families. 

During one of our Parent Cafés last June, the table conversation landed on the topic of mental health and stress. As we shared the various stressors in our lives, we realized that we had more in common than not. The Café lended the space for us to share coping strategies and effective ways to overcome stress. As we began to explore the stigma associated with mental health, we also began to debunk the myths about the benefits of mental health services. In fact, once the café ended, several parents requested mental health resources for themselves and their families. The beauty of the Café is that we are all participants, sharing our common human experience, and learning together. That is empowering for those who don’t often feel heard and humbling for the professionals who make programmatic decisions.

The Parent Café model was designed by parents and for parents and thus a model which promotes parent leadership development; parents are encouraged to become facilitators and to take the parent café back to their community. We have been honored to participate in Parent Cafés that were led by parent facilitators. During the last two years, twenty-six (26) of our parents have been certified as Parent Café Facilitators and they are able to host the café both in English and Spanish. Some of our most impactful Parent Cafés have been bilingual, bringing two communities together that often do not intersect.  We all walked away with the understanding that we have more in common than previously imagined.  Another Café that ranked high with our program was called, “Educate, Enjoy and Enlighten.”  We hosted this Café last year and the focus was on children with special needs and their families.  We invited our local Early Intervention Program, so that we could all support one another.  The “experts” removed their professional hats and became participants, listening and sharing in a way that made the program and parents accessible.  The result was that the Early Intervention Program has decided to include the Parent Café model in their outreach efforts.  My take-away is that if you really want community input, then you must be willing to be a part of the community.

As with any effective program, results are what matter most.  We would like to share some of the results from eight Parent Cafés that we offered last year.  Ninety eight percent (98%) of the participants said they would recommend Parent Café to their friends and family members.  Ninety-six (96%) of the participants responded that they learned something that will help them as a parent.  Ninety-three (93%) of the participants said they plan to try a different way and/or learn a new way to handle stress or challenges in their lives. As you can see by the results, “The proof truly is in the pudding."

Article by Royace Hagler and Gisela Hurtado Regional Managers, Service Integration at United Planning Organization.