Why Are Cafés So Great? - Empowering Communities Through Leadership and Reciprocity
Welcome to another edition of “Why Cafés Are So Great”! Today, we’re focusing on the incredible work of the Parent Café team and how Cafés empower communities by fostering leadership and mutual support.
In the family services field, most support is traditionally provided by professionals or paraprofessionals. While essential, this expert assistance often leaves little room for communities to mobilize and help each other through reciprocal relationships. That’s where Parent Cafés come in.
Parent Cafés were intentionally designed to be by the people, for the people. While professionals play a role in supporting the parent leaders who implement the Cafés, the real magic happens when parents themselves take the lead. This shifts the dominant social service paradigm, building stronger communities and alleviating some of the pressure on program staff, which in turn increases program capacity.
From the start, Parent Cafés embraced collaboration. The original design process included a dozen parent leaders, an ad agency, and two experts in adult learning and experiential education. Today, this collaborative spirit remains a hallmark of our strategic plan, with every new Parent Café deck reflecting the voices of those actively involved in the process.
But the benefits of Parent Cafés extend beyond the programs themselves—they also have a profound impact on the parents who run them. Being part of a Parent Café team builds confidence and leadership skills, while also providing practical, résumé-building experience in:
Event planning and implementation
Large and small group facilitation
Public speaking
Marketing and outreach
Additionally, we ensure that the parents who lead Cafés are compensated for their efforts, ideally at a rate comparable to program staff. This commitment to equity—political, social, and economic—is key to our model. For many parents, participating in a Parent Café team can be a part-time job that supplements their household income.
Many parents who begin their journey with Parent Cafés discover their leadership potential and go on to serve on advisory boards or become community advocates. Moms who once doubted their job skills find their strengths, develop them, and often secure employment—either within the program or beyond.
Meaningful, sustainable parent engagement and leadership are not ideals, aspirations or unintended consequences of BSF cafes: they are hard-wired into the model. No wonder so many schools and government-funded programs that require parent involvement as part of their funding requirements rely on cafes to assist in accomplishing these goals.