New Video Resource: What is a Parent Café?

Be Strong Families is thrilled to present our new Parent Café video, developed in partnership with the Bainum Family Foundation, who have been hosting Parent Cafés throughout Wards 7 and 8 in Washington, D.C. as part of their early childhood initiative.

The video captures the best of what a parent-led Parent Café can be and the potential for family strengthening and transformation across all aspects of family life, from learning time management skills to coping with tragedy. The parents featured in the video capture how every piece of the Café brings parents to a place where transformation is possible.

From the beginning, the introduction of the Protective Factors gives parents the understanding of how they can go home and use them in their day-to-day family life, the Café Agreements set the tone and maintain the integrity of the Café, and the One-on-One breaks the ice while building social connections by connecting parents to new friends. Table Conversations then make up the meat of the Parent Café, and they’re all about the parents having conversations and their voices being heard. One parent shares how the Café Conversations give you a moment where you feel, “Oh, they understand me.”

In the end, the Commitment Card, Harvesting, and One Word Closing provides closure and carries forward the energy and transformation of the Café. One parent explains, “When I go home after a Café, I just feel like a weight lifted off.”  

If you have been trying to tell people about Parent Cafés and how great they are, here is a way to let them see for their own eyes.