Cafés

Be Strong Families has become internationally known as an innovator in using structured, small group conversations, called Cafés, to facilitate transformation and healing within families, build community, develop peer-to-peer relationships, and engage parents as partners in the programs that serve them.

In Cafés every voice is valued, and everyone has the opportunity to both learn and lead. First developed in 2007 by parent leaders from Strengthening Families Illinois, the Parent Café process remains a parent-to-parent way to build the Strengthening Families™ Protective Factors within families.

Cafés are physically and emotionally safe spaces where people talk and listen to each other on topics that matter to them, such as the challenges and victories of raising a family, navigating landscapes of inequality, enhancing well-being, or being involved in the recovery process of someone they love. Through individual deep self-reflection and peer-to-peer learning, participants explore their strengths, learn about the Protective Factors, and create strategies from their own wisdom and experiences to strengthen their families. Participants leave Cafés feeling inspired, energized, and excited to put into practice what they’ve learned.

Cafés are highly sustainable with training reinforcement, institutional support, and a commitment to an approach that engages and affirms parents as leaders. They were developed as an in-person experience and have now been adapted, with fidelity, to be hosted online.

 
Café Testimonials

“I always feel better after a Parent Café. I get in touch with who and how I want to be as a parent.”

– Parent, Illinois

“Siempre me siento mejor después de un Café para Padres. Me pongo en contacto con quién y cómo quiero ser como padre”.

– Padre, Illinois

“Lo que me encanta de los Cafés es que marcan la pauta desde el principio de que todos somos iguales… Todos estamos aprendiendo y todos se sienten cómodos para compartir”.

– Padre Líder, Consejo de Padres en Acción, California

“What I love about Cafés are that they set the tone from the beginning that everyone is equal… Everybody is learning, and everyone feels comfortable to open up.”

– Parent Leader, Consejo de Padres en Acción, California

“The more you come, the more like family you become.”

– Parent, Missouri Project LAUNCH

“Cuantas más veces participas, lo más que te conviertes como en una familia”.

– Padre, Proyecto de LAUNCH de Missouri

“What did we learn? To love ourselves more in order to better love others.”

– Parent, Strengthening Families Maryland / Maryland Family Network

“¿Qué aprendimos? Amarnos más a nosotros mismos para amar mejor a los demás”.

– Padre, Fortalecimiento de familias Maryland / Red familiar de Maryland

“I wasn’t that patient and didn’t have lots of ways to deal with children other than yelling or [threatening]. I didn’t know to just take a good ten seconds before I react to anything, and then to… just listen, rather than going into a rage.”

– Parent, California Project LAUNCH, First 5 Alameda County, and Oakland Parents Together

“Yo no era tan paciente y no tenía muchas formas de tratar a los niños además de gritar o [amenazar]. No sabía que debía tomarme unos buenos diez segundos antes de reaccionar a algo, y luego… solo escuchar, en lugar de enfurecerme”.

– Padre, California Project LAUNCH, First 5 Alameda County y Oakland Parents Together

Parent Engagement Benefits

 
young mother at a table talking to social worker

Programs that invest in Cafés find that:

  • Relationships between participants and staff are improved 

  • Attendance at other agency events is increased 

  • Support networks are enhanced 

  • Participants experience reduction in stress and improvements in well-being 

  • Parents feel more comfortable disclosing needs and accessing services and supports 

  • Parents experience themselves as leaders in their families and communities and as a result assume active leadership roles within and outside the program

For a complete list of short-term, intermediate and long-term outcomes and impact, and to learn about our Parent Café evaluation efforts and how we know Cafés work, visit our Evidence & Evaluation page.

To find Cafés in your area, visit our Cafés Near You page (coming soon).

How to Fund Your Cafés

All of our services and products can be funded with the following sources:

 

  • Project Launch - Protective Factors

  • Children’s Trust - Protective Factors

  • First Five - Parent Engagement

  • SAHMSA - Protective Factors

  • Full Service Community School Competitive Grant - Biden funding for Parent Engagement

  • 21st Century Community Learning Grant - Parent Engagement

  • National Down Syndrome Congress/Grant

  • Strengthening Families Grant

  • Department of Health (any state)

  • Department of Mental Health (any state)

  • Local County Health Departments

  • State Child Welfare Systems

  • Department of Education (federal)

  • State run School Boards (ISBE as an example)

  • Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

  • OSEP Fund for Military Parent Engagement

Come See for Yourself

 

A Taste of Cafés

Every Friday, Be Strong Families hosts a free, online A Taste of Cafés at 12:00 pm CT. Experience how Cafés could strategically and intentionally meet your program’s parent engagement challenges.

Intro to Be Strong Families Parent Cafés

After you attend A Taste of Cafés, experience a free 1-hour Intro to Be Strong Families Cafés session (held twice a month) for more information and to get your questions answered. If you ever needed a place to learn how to keep your children safe and your family strong—this is it! Complete with an introduction to the history, benefits, major parts and roles of a Parent Café. These Cafés are a highly structured, small-group conversation process that promotes peer-to-peer learning and deep self–reflection.

Get Trained on Cafés

A Café Training is an experiential and highly interactive workshop — either online or in-person — that prepares participants to convene and conduct Be Strong Families Cafés and to serve as Table/Room Hosts at these Cafés.