Be Strong Families NFP

Be Strong Families NFP create transformative conversations to nurture the spirit of family, well-being, and prevent violence Our social fabric is fraying. According to a recent U.S.

Mission: Be Strong Families partners to create transformative change by developing and sustaining conversations that nurture the spirit of family, promote well-being, and prevent violence. Strong families are the foundation of strong communities and a strong society. Surgeon General’s Report (Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, 2023), we are currently experiencing an epidemic of loneliness that not only has major physical and mental health consequences but also is weakening our ability to stand together as a country. All Be Strong Families offerings intentionally strengthen social ties between parents and children, among family members, within schools and family-serving programs, and in communities. Whether through Parent Cafés, Living the Protective Factors or other skill-building workshops, a game of Questionable, or coloring book parent–child time, join us and be part of a groundswell of positive change.

10/07/2026

We don't post everything online. 🤫

Extended versions of our partner stories, resources you can use, and exclusive shop announcements go straight to our newsletter subscribers.

Want in? Subscrib here: https://share.hsforms.com/1NIge82tZQQqfk89R20RScweh8q9

The latest issue of the Be Strong Families Revitalizer is here! 💜💚This month, we’re sharing stories from across our netw...
10/06/2026

The latest issue of the Be Strong Families Revitalizer is here! 💜💚

This month, we’re sharing stories from across our network that show what can happen when communities shape the work, conversations lead to learning, and leadership is built into the places where decisions are made.

Inside this issue:
• Discover how Recovering Together Cafés were developed alongside Archways, recovery experts, and people with lived experience.
https://www.bestrongfamilies.org/blog/recovering-together-cafs-creating-space-for-families-to-heal-together

• See what data from 217 Parent Café participants from Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth can teach us about what people carry with them beyond the Café.
https://www.bestrongfamilies.org/blog/what-oklahomas-parent-cafe-data-shows

• Learn how El Paso Center for Children is growing Parent Café capacity across its community through the Certified Training Partner model.
https://www.bestrongfamilies.org/blog/what-happens-when-a-community-makes-the-parent-cafe-model-its-own

• Explore how leaders from our National Parent Café Leadership Team influence Be Strong Families—from programs and partnerships to Board governance.
https://www.bestrongfamilies.org/blog/leadership-that-grows-together

These stories are all different, but they share something important: meaningful change grows through conversation, collaboration, and relationships.

Read the latest issue of the BSF Revitalizer and see what’s taking shape across our network.

📢 Attention certified Parent Café hosts in Texas! 🤠Parents love your Parent Cafés. Now you can bring those same meaningf...
10/06/2026

📢 Attention certified Parent Café hosts in Texas! 🤠

Parents love your Parent Cafés. Now you can bring those same meaningful conversations to even more people in your community.
Join us in Dallas this November for in-person add-on training and get certified to host one or both of these Café models.

☕ Cafés for youth
☕ Vitality Cafés for adults in every stage of life

📍 Dallas, Texas
📅 November 4–5, 2026
💲 $700 for one add-on or $1,000 for both

Bring a colleague and save. When two people from the same agency register for the same training, each gets $50 off per training.

These add-ons are open to anyone who has completed Parent Café Host Training, online or in person. You already have the hosting skills, and this training builds on them so you can welcome more of your community to the table.
Registration links in the comments. ⤵️

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas
The University of Texas at Austin
DePelchin Children's Center
El Paso Center for Children
United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County
My Health My Resources of Tarrant County

It's ! 💖 October is a time to recognize the voices of youth with lived experience in foster care, because they are the ...
10/06/2026

It's ! 💖

October is a time to recognize the voices of youth with lived experience in foster care, because they are the experts.

This year’s Selfless Love Foundation theme is 🚘“Driven by Experience.”

Youth perspectives inspire change, and their leadership is helping shape child welfare policies that support youth in care and future generations.

By listening, learning, and creating opportunities for youth to lead, we can build a child welfare system where every voice matters. 💖

In the past year, Be Strong Families delivered 554 events through 39 partnering agencies across the state, serving over ...
10/04/2026

In the past year, Be Strong Families delivered 554 events through 39 partnering agencies across the state, serving over 4,000 participants through our contract with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

But those are out-PUTS, not out-COMES. The outcomes are the real goals; the outputs are just how you hope to get there.

Here’s what we can report that really changed for the better, according to the families we served:
↪️ 97% of parents with child welfare involvement in Fast Track workshops said they're confident they can do what it takes to get their kids back
↪️ 80% of foster parents said they met someone they'll stay in touch with
↪️ 88% of foster parents now feel more comfortable reaching out for help
↪️ 96% of fathers with child welfare involvement said they learned something about the system they hadn't heard anywhere else

We know that programs can hit every attendance target and still not make real gains. Families with complex challenges are tough, and tracking progress is, too. That's why we’re so proud of not just delivering services, but helping parents feel less alone in the hardest process of their lives, helping foster parents find peers instead of just training, and giving professionals valuable tools they can use to do better work.

Want outcomes like these? Read more below and contact us at our website: https://www.bestrongfamilies.org/child-welfare

Feeling connected increases your health and wellbeing and builds community. 🌿🫱🏽‍🫲🏼Here's another in our series of 101 Wa...
10/03/2026

Feeling connected increases your health and wellbeing and builds community. 🌿🫱🏽‍🫲🏼

Here's another in our series of 101 Ways to Build Real Connection: Bring your neighbor's trash bin back from the curb. 🗑️

Or pick up a piece of litter from their lawn, entrance, or a shared hallway. You get the idea.

Your neighbor will love you for it. 💞

What does it really mean to lead with love?In Lesson 10 of her 10-part blog series, Lessons from a Decade of Youth–Adult...
10/02/2026

What does it really mean to lead with love?

In Lesson 10 of her 10-part blog series, Lessons from a Decade of Youth–Adult Partnership, Be Strong Families President and CEO Kathryn Leigh Goetz, PhD., explores love as an essential part of meaningful youth–adult partnership.

Love in this work isn’t about sentimentality. It looks like dignity, trust, accountability, consistency, healthy boundaries, and a belief in each person’s capacity.

As Kathryn writes, “Healthy boundaries are not the absence of love. They are one of the ways love protects.”

Read Lesson 10 to explore why love matters in the relationships we build with young people—and why those relationships are at the heart of lasting change.

https://www.bestrongfamilies.org/blog/love

Our Journey to Vitality Café in a Box has a new edition, and this one is made for the workplace. 🧑🏽‍⚕️👷🏼👩🏾‍⚕️ The new de...
10/02/2026

Our Journey to Vitality Café in a Box has a new edition, and this one is made for the workplace. 🧑🏽‍⚕️👷🏼👩🏾‍⚕️

The new deck adds questions that promote work-life harmony.

It has 240 questions organized around the Six Domains of Vitality (physical, mental and emotional, spiritual, financial, environmental, and social), and it's available in English and Spanish.

Work and life are more intertwined than ever. 🪢

People bring their stress, their money worries, and their family logistics into every meeting. This deck gives teams an easy, low-pressure way to talk about balance, burnout, boundaries, and a sense of belonging.

Pre-order now! https://www.bestrongfamilies.org/shop/p/the-journey-to-vitality-cafe-in-a-box-work-life-harmony-edition

Happy 10-Year Anniversary to our Certified Training Partner, the Center for Schools and Communities! 🎉 Be Strong Familie...
09/28/2026

Happy 10-Year Anniversary to our Certified Training Partner, the Center for Schools and Communities! 🎉

Be Strong Families is proud to celebrate 10 years of partnership with Pennsylvania’s Center for Schools and Communities (CSC) — one of our longtime Parent Café Certified Training Partners.

Through this partnership, CSC has helped expand the reach of Be Strong Families’ Parent Café approach across Pennsylvania, equipping professionals and parents to create meaningful conversations, strengthen families, and build stronger family-school-community partnerships.

In 2023–24 alone, CSC trained more than 200 professionals and parents on the Strengthening Families™ Protective Factors Framework through Café trainings, courses, and conferences.

And over the years? Hundreds of Parent Café-trained hosts across Pennsylvania have carried this work into their own communities. We’re celebrating them, too!

(See someone you know? Tag yourself or a fellow Café host! ⤵️)

Certified Training Partners help bring Parent Café training and capacity directly to their communities, systems, and networks.

Could your organization become a Certified Training Partner? 🤔 Contact us to start the conversation. 💞

Letechia Holmes holds a lot of titles at Be Strong Families: Founding Partner, Director of People and Culture, Chief of ...
09/25/2026

Letechia Holmes holds a lot of titles at Be Strong Families: Founding Partner, Director of People and Culture, Chief of Staff, and Senior Trainer and Facilitator.

Now added to the list: Published research author. 👏🏽

Letechia was on the parent leader design team years ago, the group that developed the original Parent Café model in Illinois. She shared her expertise in parent engagement on the research team that published a 2025 academic paper studying how first-time attendees experience Parent Cafés.

Drawing on over 8,000 survey responses, the research found that young parents and parents from racial and ethnic minority groups rate their first Café experience the highest, insight that helps providers focus their outreach where it's needed most. 💡

What makes Letechia's part in this research so fitting is that she knows the work from every angle: as a designer of the model, as a trainer, now as a researcher, and first and foremost, as a parent.

Because her most precious titles are mother and grandmother. 💕

Read the research and meet Letechia in the comments. ⤵️

Photo: 2016 Parent Café celebration event

Address

1074 W Taylor Street, #354
Chicago, IL
60607

Telephone

+18008052505

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Be Strong Families NFP posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category